On the morning Sean “Diddy” Combs was set to learn his fate over his alleged involvement in a 1999 nightclub shooting, he decided to make a pit stop.
The music mogul had been at the center of a highly publicized trial alongside his Bad Boy protégé Shyne Barrow over shots fired inside a packed New York City nightclub that left three people injured. Combs was charged with weapons possession and attempted bribery and was facing 15 years in prison if convicted.
Hours away from learning the jury’s verdict in March 2001, Combs had his driver take him to Central Park where a man was waiting, Combs’ then-bodyguard Gene Deal claims in a new Hulu documentary about Barrow’s life, The Honorable Shyne, premiering on Monday, Nov. 18.
“When Puff got close to the guy, he just dropped down to his knees,” Deal explains. “Next thing I see, is this smoke just going back and forth around Puff. I guess it was sage or something like that.”
Deal claims the man appeared to hold a Bible in his hands and began praying and laying hands on Combs. At one point, the man allegedly told Combs to grab a white bird from a cage that the man had presumably brought with him. “Puff took this white bird and threw it up in the air, and the bird just fell to the ground, boom, like it was a brick,” Deal says. “I was like, ‘Oh, shit!’ … The bird died, man … the bird didn’t even move. [Combs] just walked away from him real quick.”
Later that day, Combs was acquitted on the charges against him, clutching a Bible as the verdict was read aloud. Leaving the courthouse with his mother Janice by his side, Combs told a crowd of supporters that he felt “grateful” and “blessed” for his name to be cleared.
Meanwhile, Barrow was found guilty of assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a pistol, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Upon the rapper’s release in 2009, he was deported back to Belize.
Barrow’s new documentary traces the musician-turned-politician’s life from growing up in New York City, his short-lived time as a Bad Boy artist, and how the infamous shooting trial changed the trajectory of his life.
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In the project, Barrow says that he believes he was set up to be the “fall guy,” claiming his lawyers were working with Combs and “deliberately threw” his case. “It’s all coming to light,” Barrow says. “Because when I said it [at the time], everyone was partying and having a great time with Diddy while I was left to rot in prison.” (In a statement to Rolling Stone, Combs “categorically denies” Barrow’s allegations, “including any suggestion that he orchestrated Mr. Barrow to ‘take the fall’ or ‘sacrificed’ him by directing witnesses to testify against him. These claims are unequivocally false.”)
Combs himself is now detained without bail as he awaits a May 2025 trial on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty to the three charges.
