Back in 1997, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and The Notorious ‘Biggie’ B.I.G. attended an after-party together where Biggie was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting.
Diddy’s bodyguard, Gene Deal, was present that night and later shared that he had a bad feeling about the evening and felt he needed to be there to protect the ‘I’ll be Missing You’ singer.
“I saw this kid lose his life — this kid died while I was pulling him out of the car,” Deal told Vibe Magazine.
“I wouldn’t put nobody in my shoes ’cause I don’t feel like they could handle it. If I didn’t have God in my life, if I didn’t have people praying for me, I don’t know if I could have handled it.”
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He explained that before leaving Andre Harrell’s house, Diddy had told him he didn’t have to go. “I knew that somebody was going to die that night, somebody was going to get shot. I did everything in my power to stop it from being Puff, and it wasn’t Puff.”
Biggies death still hurts Diddy’s bodyguard
“The people that was bodyguarding Big didn’t do everything in their power to stop it from being Big — and that hurts me, even though it wasn’t my principle,” he told Vibe. “Every time you hear his music, every time you see one of these murals on the wall, now they got statues… it’s gon’ hurt until God takes me away from here.”
Diddy, who was nearby when the shooting happened, rushed to the hospital with Biggie. “Then doctors come and tell us the news,” Diddy told Rolling Stone in 1997. “I was on my knees praying the whole time. I was just stuck. I couldn’t understand. It was moving so fast. I just could not believe it was real.”
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“It gets worse, though. I had Damien call Biggie’s mother,” Diddy said. “Then in the middle of telling her, Damien breaks down. So I had to tell her. I had to calm her down, try to get somebody over to the house.”
Many around themusic mogul were worried that he could be the killer’s next target, urging him to leave Los Angeles. “And then I woke up, and everybody was panicking, telling me to get out of L.A. And I just could not move,” Diddy recalled. “I was stuck.”
