Son of Opposition Leader charged in New York shooting
If you were watching television news over the weekend you may have noticed a celebrity crime story featuring rap music giant Sean “Puffy” Combs and his girlfriend, hotter than hot actress/singer Jennifer Lopez. It seems the two celebrities were arrested in the wee hours of Monday morning as they sped away from the scene of a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub. A police search revealed a stolen gun on the front seat and Combs was charged for criminal possession of a weapon. Lopez was kept all night in the police lockup until her charges were dropped the next day. And where does Belize fit into all of this? According to New York newspaper accounts one prominent member of the Combs/Lopez entourage was the up and coming Brooklyn based rap star named Shyne. Shyne, also known as Jamal Barrow, is the nineteen-year-old son of Opposition Leader Dean Barrow and Imeon Myvette. According to the New York District Attorney’s Office Barrow got into an argument with an unidentified patron at the club who suddenly tossed a wad of money at him and Combs. Eyewitnesses report that Barrow and Combs responded by pulling out semiautomatic pistols. Barrow allegedly fired a number of shots, hitting two men in the shoulder and one woman in the cheek. Unlike Puffy and Jennifer, Shyne did not speed off into the night and was arrested at the club. A second gun was allegedly found in his waistband. The Belizean rapper has been charged with three counts of attempted murder and remains in police custody. For more details we go to MTV News.
Hip hop star Sean Puffy Combs is released from custody late Monday night on ten thousand dollars bail following a day of questioning by New York City police who had arrested the thirty year old mogul on charges of criminal possession of a weapon and of stolen property following a shooting incident early Monday morning at a Manhattan nightspot called, Club New York. Three people were wounded in the incident; two remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
The prime suspect in the shootings right now is a nineteen-year-old Combs associate named Jamal Barrow who goes by the rap name Shyne. Barrow remains behind bars charged with three counts of attempted murder. According to police the shooting started when someone threw a wad of cash in Combs’ face. One witness contends that Combs and Barrow both pulled guns. Ironically when MTV News talked to Barrow last March at a memorial dinner for murdered rapper Biggie Smalls, Barrow spoke about a new commitment among hip hop performers to tone down the violence associated with the music.
Jamal “Shyne” Barrow
(March, 1999) “The artists will definitely make a conscious effort to try and, you know, shy away from that violence. But then again they can only tell what they see and where they’re from. So I mean it’s just the truth, that’s all we can talk, the truth.”
As it happens Barrow was reportedly the target of an unsuccessful drive-by shooting on October first which shattered the glass door of Puffy Combs’ recording studio, Daddy’s House, which is located one block away from Club New York. Following the shootings at about two thirty a.m. on Monday morning Combs and his girlfriend actress Jennifer Lopez along with the driver and bodyguard drove away from the scene around the police car blocking the street and led cops on a ten block chase. A loaded unlicensed semi automatic pistol later reported as having been stolen in Georgia was found in their car. All four occupants were arrested but Lopez was released on Monday afternoon and all charges against her have been dropped.
Police ran ballistic tests on both Jamal Barrow’s gun and the gun found in Puffy Combs’ car. The Combs’ gun, they determined, had not been used in the shootings, however, a second gun that was fired in the club that night remains missing.
News Five spoke to Barrow’s uncle, Mesopotamia Representative Michael Finnegan, who told us that Barrow was expected to make bail shortly.
