He was sentenced to take an anger management course, and if he stayed out of trouble for a year, the charges would be dismissed. Stoute claims that Puffy and two associates beat him, breaking his jaw and his arm in the process. While Combs admits that some unpleasantness unfolded, he contends that things weren't as severe as first reported. Combs' name also popped up in hip-hop rumors surrounding the murder of his friend Notorious B.I.G. and rival Tupac Shakur. Notorious B.I.G. was riding in the passenger seat of his GMC Suburban when he was shot and killed by a single shooter with a 9mm handgun on March 9, 1997.
Investigators believe the assassin fled via a carefully designed escape route.
He was described by a witness as a young, well-dressed African American man. Knight, founder of Death Row Records, was seated next to rapper Tupac Shakur when the Death Row rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996. According to authorities, Knight believes people at Bad Boy Entertainment may have been behind that attack. Shakur's death has never been linked to Combs' people. Before the murders of Wallace and Shakur, the two rap camps blamed each other for several other shootings and even a murder.