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A woman who claims Sean “Diddy“ Combs shot her in the face in a New York City nightclub back in 1999 has described the news of his arrest as “one of the best days ever.”
Natania Reuben was at Club New York in Manhattan in December 1999 when gunfire broke out, injuring three people. She miraculously survived, but the bullet scarred her brain.
Diddy was acquitted in 2001, but Reuben is hopeful that the latest charges against him – sex trafficking and racketeering, which he denies – means he might finally face justice, even if it’s not in her own case.
Reuben described the moment that her teenage daughter, Nirvana, broke the news of Diddy’s arrest to her on Monday. Reuben told The Daily Beast: “I said, ‘Are you kidding me, really?’ She said, ‘Yes!’ I just screamed out to God, ‘Thank you, merciful father!’”
“One of the best days ever,” she added.
The infamous shooting began with a conflict between Diddy — then known as Puffy — his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, his bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones and rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow. Gunfire erupted afterwards, and the four were arrested.
Reuben was caught in the crossfire and claims she saw Diddy with the gun in his hand.
“I watched him,” she told The Daily Beast. “I saw him with my own eyes.”
Charges were quickly dropped against Lopez before the case went to court. She cooperated with investigators at the time and has since denied any wrongdoing regarding the 1999 shooting.
Diddy and Jones were acquitted of all charges in a 2001 trial. Barrow, then 21, was convicted of assault and gun possession and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The case was thrust back into the spotlight this February after Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a bombshell lawsuit against Diddy, alleging he was “subjected to unwanted advances by associates of Diddy at his direction.”
Jones also claimed Diddy lied about his role in the 1999 shooting, writing that the rapper was “bragging about bribing witnesses, and jurors in the criminal case concerning the 1999 NYC nightclub shooting with Shyne.”
Reuben said she’s lived with the consequences of the shooting ever since. “I’ve had a host of problems, not the least of which is a traumatic brain injury, because the bullet scarred my brain,” she said.
Reuben wasn’t the only Diddy accuser to celebrate the arrest of Diddy.
Singer Aubrey O’Day, who was a member of Diddy’s Danity Kane girl group, took to X to call his arrest “a win for women all over the world.”
“The purpose of Justice is to provide an ending and allow us the space to create a new chapter,” said O’Day, who is among a growing list of accusers who have filed civil lawsuits against the music mogul.
“Women never get this. I feel validated. Today is a win for women all over the world, not just me. Things are finally changing.”
Diddy denies all the allegations against him.
