Gene Deal, former bodyguard for Diddy, is opening up about the 1999 shooting that left Shyne in prison for a decade.
As the story goes, Bad Boy artist Shyne was jailed for attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment charges after a shooting incident at a Manhattan nightclub, where he, Diddy, and Jennifer Lopez were partying, per HipHopDX. The shooting was allegedly instigated by Matthew “Scar” Allen, and three people were injured with Diddy being acquitted of all charges.
“We had the day off,” Deal told The Art of Dialogue. “Puff and Jennifer Lopez was in the Hamptons, and they was supposed to be taking some kind of Mediterranean tour. They had rented a boat and they was going on a tour. Puff gave us the day off … [bodyguard] Wolf is at a party. They call it The Show. Puff come all the way from the Hamptons. If you in the Hamptons, that’s an hour and forty-five minutes. That could be a two-hour drive on that type of day with traffic, easy.”
Deal continued, sharing that fellow bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones arrived with Diddy and JLo before Shyne, and that they were “beefing with some dudes who packed a certain part of the bar.” He says a man then threw money in Diddy’s face and said “we got money” before a fight took place. Deal then suggested that Diddy threw Shyne under the bus so he wouldn’t go to jail.
“They came to Shyne and they asked Shyne for 20 racks ’cause they had somebody that was gonna make sure all of them got off ’cause they was not going to agree to none of them charges, and they was on the jury stand,” he says. “Shyne may not admit to it, but he knows that to be true. So now, the reason they got off was people was coming to Bad Boy security and said that they were there.”
Deal then added that people were “making statements against Shyne.”
“He was like, ‘You supposed to be my brother and you got people testifying against me?’ Those people were testifying, they were brought to Puff first, saying what they saw against Shyne, what they saw Shyne do. The D.A. didn’t even know those people existed.”
Shyne told the publication back in 2021 that he’s forgiven Diddy, who helped him secure a U.S. visa, for the situation, and that difficulties are “part of a family.”
“And I think you have to have perspective, and you have to have a vision and a focus as to where you’re going. I try not to focus on people and I try to focus on myself,” Shyne said. “Once I heal and once I get clarity as to my purpose and my mission, then taking the baggage of yesterday with me is not practical. You can’t move forward taking things from 23 years ago with you.”
