Looking weary from the preceding day's events, Sean "Puffy" Combs addressed a roomful of reporters Tuesday afternoon, in hopes of establishing his innocence with regard to Sunday night's shooting at Manhattan's Club New York.
"I do not own a gun nor did I have possession of a gun that night," Combs said, and then reiterated several times over the course of the press conference the following declaration: "I had nothing to do with a shooting in this club." Combs' statement comes in the wake of his having spent nearly twenty-four hours in police custody Monday. He was brought in when a gun was found in the car carrying him and girlfriend Jennifer Lopez away from the club where three people had just been injured by gunfire.
Lopez was exonerated of all charges Monday afternoon and Combs was finally arraigned at around eleven o'clock Monday night, charged with criminal possession of a weapon in both the second and third degree. He was given a return court date of Feb. 14 and was released after paying $10,000 bail.
The charges carry a maximum jail penalty of fifteen years, but Combs said that he is confident that his name will be cleared in the next couple days. His defense, articulated by his lawyer, Harvey Slovis, is that the charges are unfounded because he was in the backseat of the car, and the gun was found in the front seat.
Yet the complaint filed with Manhattan Criminal Court indicates that a witness saw Puff Daddy draw a gun in the club during a dispute. The witness saw an individual throw money at Combs and told police that Combs and Jamal Barrow -- charged separately after being arrested outside the club -- both brandished semiautomatic weapons. The witness says that Barrow then fired his gun and fled the club.
Barrow, a rapper on Puffy's Bad Boy Entertainment label who goes by the name Shyne, was charged with three counts of attempted murder in the second degree and one count of reckless endangerment. He is being held by police and is due back in court on Thursday, Dec. 30.
Meanwhile, Anthony Jones and Wardel Fenderson, the two front-seat occupants of the car where the gun was found, were also charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree. Bail for Jones was set at $20,000 and for Fenderson at $10,000. Both were released and are due back on Feb. 14.
JENNY ELISCU
(December 28, 1999)