Arrested Development

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Everybody who wants to hear yet another sorry story about gangsta rappers and gunplay, stand up.

Sit your butt down, DMX, we weren't talking to you.

These are tough times for gangsta rappers. In early December, Jay-Z (a.k.a. Shawn Carter) was charged with assault. Now Puff Daddy (a.k.a. Sean Combs), the Hamptons-partying, Versace-wearing, MTV-approved icon of ghetto-fabulous hip-hop style, is facing a weapons charge after leaving the scene of a shoot-out. And his girlfriend, singer-actor Jennifer Lopez, has been dragged into the mess.

The trouble began the day after Christmas when Combs and Lopez went to Club New York, a newly hot Times Square nightclub. Now Club New York isn't exactly a gangsta's paradise--PEOPLE magazine held its holiday party there. Nonetheless, around 2:50 a.m., shooting erupted and three patrons were wounded. According to a source close to Lopez, "Jennifer was leaving the club when the shots were fired. She hit the floor and then got up and exited as fast as possible." After Combs came out, the couple got into the rear seat of a 1999 Lincoln Navigator owned by his record company, which sped away past a police cruiser with flashing lights and through several red lights. When police stopped the car they reportedly found a 9-mm semiautomatic pistol on the floor of the front seat. They arrested Combs, his bodyguard, his driver and Lopez.

Lopez was held for more than 12 hours--weeping and handcuffed to a bench--before prosecutors said charges against her would not be pursued. Combs was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and possession of stolen property (police say the gun was stolen); he was released on $10,000 bail. Another rapper, Jamal Barrow (a.k.a. Shyne, a new artist on Combs' Bad Boy label), was charged with attempted murder for allegedly pulling out a gun and firing when someone in the club insulted Puffy.

Questions remain. If the pistol in the car was found in the front seat, why were back seat passengers Lopez and Combs arrested? Police say it's procedure. Another uncertainty: cops claim witnesses saw Combs with a gun; but since Lopez wasn't fingered by witnesses, why was she held? A source close to Lopez says the actress feels that "the way the police handled this was inappropriate. She could have been quickly cleared and released."

One also has to wonder how this will affect the Combs-Lopez romance. Lasting relationships are not usually built on dates that end in gunfire and group arrests. But the arrests shouldn't taint Lopez professionally. Says Variety editor Peter Bart: "So many actors today have such a bland demeanor. A slightly dangerous rep might help, or even enhance, her career." As for Combs, who has proclaimed his innocence, his latest CD, Forever, hasn't sold well, and these new legal hassles only add to his worries. Just last April, Combs was arrested for assaulting a record executive, a matter he settled with a plea bargain, a payout and a day in anger-management class. He is due in court to face the new charges on Feb. 14.

--By Christopher John Farley. Reported by David E. Thigpen and Elaine Rivera/New York

With reporting by David E. Thigpen and Elaine Rivera/New York