Diddy-Tupac Shooting Story -- All a Big Hoax?

Posted Mar 26th 2008 11:54AM by TMZ Staff

So that explosive report last week by a Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. Times reporter that linked P. Diddy to the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur? Looks like it may have been a big hoax, perpetrated by a federal inmate who fabricated many of the "FBI reports" on which the story was based.
Diddy and Tupac
According to The Smoking Gun, a con artist in Federal prison named James Sabatino created the documents that were the basis for the Times' March 17 report, which suggested that the 1994 shooting of Tupac was planned and perpetrated by Diddy and his associates. The supposed FBI reports and lawsuits Sabatino says he filed were apparently created in the Allenwood federal penitentiary in White Deer, Penn., and can't be found in the bureau's database.

Diddy denied any involvement in the shooting in 1994 -- and after the Times' report. We called the reporter of the piece, Chuck Phillips, for comment, and haven't heard back. L.A. Times editor Russ Stanton, through a rep, issued the following statement: "Questions have been raised about the authenticity of documents that we relied on for a story on the assault of Tupac Shakur in New York. We are taking this very seriously and have begun our own investigation."

Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Music

Comments [13]

Digg it Del.icio.us My Yahoo Sphere RSS MySpace Permalink Email

Reader Comments

(Page 1 of 1)

1. dim witt...change places with Tupac!!! if only....

Posted at 12:23PM on Mar 26th 2008 by carpediem

2. Does the L.A. Times still have any editors on staff? No one vetted this story? Goodbye, Chuck Philips.

Posted at 12:24PM on Mar 26th 2008 by Carolyn (Abernathy)

3. why all of a sudden he got mad popular after the death of tupac and biggie...hmmmmm??makes ya wonder...I don't trust his ass....he is too egotistical to not take down people that are in his way. Who did he pay off for this "new" news?

Posted at 12:28PM on Mar 26th 2008 by Corrina

4. carpediem, I agree....if only......

Posted at 12:29PM on Mar 26th 2008 by Corrina

5. Don't trust puffy he screw over most of his artist and
he also screw biggie over. he was involved in tupac shooting at the studio in 1994
even tupac says it that puffy was involved.
so don't be surprised

Posted at 12:58PM on Mar 26th 2008 by keepitreal

6. TUPAC backwards = CAPUT

Posted at 2:50PM on Mar 26th 2008 by FlBiker

7. Given the number of senseless gang murders, shootings, rapes, arsons, and littany of other crimes reported daily in the LA Tmes for the last three decades. Perhaps, before making Mr. Combs a target for every thug wannabe in America regardless of their half-wit retractraction. They should have checked their source a guy in jail for fraud and perjury - who is psychologically ill and believes he knows everyone in Hollywood.

Posted at 3:49PM on Mar 26th 2008 by LA Times What a RAG

8. sounds like a cover up to me. something fishy about this whole damn thing.

RIP 2PAC~~

Posted at 4:10PM on Mar 26th 2008 by 420

9. Piff didn't do it....personally....but he was involved when that happened...he was at the meeting that took part In Vegas when they decided they wanted to get rid of Tupac...To me,he always is gonna be tainted with that event...

Posted at 4:36PM on Mar 26th 2008 by carsea

10. Who cares? The more these no-talent thugs knock each other off, the better.

Posted at 9:35AM on Mar 27th 2008 by Cur

11. "Diddy" is nothing but an "N" thug. One day it will catch up with him + he will be doing some
serious time.

Posted at 4:32PM on Mar 28th 2008 by Leonard

12. its strange hw tupac and biggie met their deaths the 1 with the least talent made it soooooooo far?it all sounds 2 cosy 4 p.diddy who made by other ppls mis fortune dnt no hw u sleep at nite.

Posted at 7:54AM on Mar 29th 2008 by lil b

13. i dont get sumtin i kno it sounds retaded but...iz 2pac alive or not???

Posted at 3:11PM on Mar 30th 2008 by sleepy

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry.
Inappropriate or purely promotional comments may be removed. E-mail addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Your e-mail address is what makes your comments unique, not your user name. To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or e-mail address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to three URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted -- no need to use <p> or <br> tags.