Shooting at Club New York involving Sean 'Puffy' Combs and Shyne

Why it matters

December 27, 1999. A shooting at Club New York at 252 West 43rd Street. Three patrons hit. Sean "Puffy" Combs, his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, and a Bad Boy rapper named Shyne (real name Jamal Barrow) were all arrested as they tried to leave the scene. The case dominated New York tabloid coverage through the next year. Combs was eventually acquitted of weapons and bribery charges in March 2001. Shyne was convicted of assault, reckless endangerment, and gun possession, and was sentenced to ten years (he served eight, then was deported to Belize, where he became a member of the Belizean parliament). Combs's acquittal involved testimony that Shyne had been the shooter. Shyne has, in the years since, said publicly that he felt thrown under the bus. Combs, after the trial, changed his stage name from Puff Daddy to P. Diddy. The episode is one of the formative events in the long, complicated public history of Sean Combs. You can read about it. You will read about much more about him; the 2024 federal indictment is the part of his biography most current readers will know first.