NYC club shooting victim reveals she’ll go to extreme lengths to prove Diddy shot her
A 1999 shooting that resulted in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ arrest could come under new scrutiny after a bombshell lawsuit filed by a music producer against the rapper in February
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A woman who was injured in a nightclub shooting says she’ll go to extreme lengths to prove that rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was her attacker.
Natania Reuben was at Club New York in Manhattan, New York in December 1999 when a shooting broke out, injuring three people. Ms Reuben was shot in the face — and now she tells NewsNation she’d allow doctors to remove the pieces of a bullet still embedded in her head to prove Diddy shot her.
“If I didn’t suffer, I’m willing to have a doctor remove a part of the nine-millimetre bullet in my face so that they can use it as evidence if need be for this trial, and it may cost me my life,” Ms Reuben told the media outlet.
The infamous shooting began with a conflict between Diddy — then known as Puffy — his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, his bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones and rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow. Gunfire erupted afterwards, and the four were arrested.
Charges were quickly dropped against Lopez before the case went to court. She cooperated with investigators at the time and has since denied any wrongdoing regarding the 1999 shooting. Diddy and Mr Jones were acquitted of all charges after the 2001 trial. Barrow, then 21, was convicted of assault and gun possession and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Now, the trial is back in the limelight more than 20 years later after Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a bombshell lawsuit in February against Diddy. Mr Jones says he was “subjected to unwanted advances by associates of Diddy at his direction” and that he was forced to engage in relations with the sex workers Combs had hired.
Mr Jones also claims that Diddy lied about his role in the 1999 shooting, writing that Diddy was “bragging about bribing witnesses, and jurors in the criminal case concerning the 1999 NYC nightclub shooting with Shyne.”
“He shared that artist, and Mr. Combs’ girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Lopez, aka, J.Lo carried the gun into the club for him and passed him the gun after he got into an altercation with another individual,” Mr Jones said in court filings.
Ms Reuben said she hopes Diddy and the others arrested that night are held accountable.
“When I was fighting for my life on an operating table in St. Vincent’s Hospital for the doctors to remove the bullet that was the portion of the bullet that had shattered and was aspirating into my lungs, they had already held Miss Lopez and let her go and dropped her charges after about an hour,” she said. “This is absolutely ridiculous”
“I’m grateful that God spared my life back on that fateful day on December 27, 1999,” Ms Reuben continued. “I’m a living miracle.”
Diddy has strongly denied all of the allegations against him. His attorneys have branded the lawsuits and their accusations as money grabs, “baseless” or “sickening.”
Mr Jones’ lawsuit is making headlines after federal agents raided Diddy’s homes in California and Florida last week.
A statement from Homeland Security said law enforcement actions had been “executed as part of an ongoing investigation with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners.”
Meanwhile, Diddy’s attorney Aaron Dyers condemned the raids.
“Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr Combs’ residences,” Mr Dyers said last week.
The Independent has contacted Diddy and Lopez comment.