Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs bizarrely sacrificed a bird in Central Park on the morning he was acquitted in a high-profile gun trial in 1999, his bodyguard has claimed.
The disgraced rapper’s bodyguard Gene Deal revealed the anecdote on Hulu’s new documentary ‘The Honorable Shyne’, which details the infamous episode that landed Diddy’s protégé Shyne in prison.
Shyne – now known as Moses Barrow, the Leader of the Opposition in Belize’s parliament – was sentenced to 10 years behind bars for a December 1999 shooting in a Manhattan nightclub.
Three people were injured, and despite witnesses claiming Diddy was among those who fired his weapon in the club, he was sensationally cleared on weapons and bribery charges.
According to Deal, on the way to court to learn his fate in 2001, Diddy ordered his driver to pull over in Central Park to carry out a ritual for good luck.
Deal said a man was waiting for the rapper in the park, and when Diddy approached him, he dropped to his knees as the man swirled smoke around him – what Deal believed to be sage.
As the man touched Diddy with a bible, he then produced a white bird from a cage, and Diddy threw it in the air before it dropped to the ground dead, Deal said.
After the ritual was over, Deal said Diddy merely walked away and got back in his car. Hours later, he was acquitted and spared 15 years in prison.
Although Diddy was acquitted, Shyne was found guilty of five charges including assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a pistol.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and served almost nine years of his sentence before his release in October 2009.
He was subsequently deported to his native Belize, and in 2020 he was elected to the Belize House of Representatives before becoming the Opposition Leader in 2021.
In a far cry from the legal peril he found himself in at the end of the 1990s at the center of the Hip Hop world, he could become the Prime Minister of Belize in next year’s elections.
Deal’s appearance in the Hulu series is far from the first he has given in recent months, as he has offered an inside glimpse into Diddy’s lifestyle following the rapper’s arrest earlier this year.
As a former insider who protected Diddy through the 1990s, told The Art of Dialogue podcast in September that the disgraced rap mogul kept tapes of politicians taking part in his infamous ‘freak off’ sessions.
‘This is all bigger than Diddy,’ he said, without naming who the alleged tapes are of.
He spoke out in the days after Diddy was indicted in New York and charged with racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, as he now faces the prospect of decades behind bars.
The charges against Diddy came six months after his mansions in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal agents, where officers said they found over 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant allegedly used in the ‘freak off’ sessions.
The ‘freak offs’ would see Diddy ply women with drugs before coercing them into marathon sexual performances with male prostitutes, according to prosecutors.
Speculation has fallen on alleged ‘tapes’ of these sessions, however prosecutors have not commented on them being filmed.
Asked if there are any celebrities on alleged ‘freak off’ tapes, Deal responded: ‘(Diddy) gave celebrity parties, so what do you think?’