30 years before Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faced sex trafficking charges, he organized a celebrity basketball game where 9 people were killed in a stampede

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1. Relevant from the article:

   “The minutes ticked by at the “1st Annual Heavy D & Puff Daddy Celebrity Charity Basketball Game.” Attendees who had taken their seats at the City College of New York’s Nat Holman Gymnasium were expecting a jubilant emcee to introduce 50 other celebrities—including some of the biggest names in hip-hop, like Boyz II Men and Run DMC.

   But tip-off time came and went. The game never started.

   Unbeknownst to those who had arrived early, outside the doors of the arena hundreds of panicked students were being crushed into the bottom of a steep, two-flight stairwell leading down to the gym, a 1992 report by New York deputy mayor of public safety Milton Mollen recounted. Flyers advertising the event littered the steps, leaving them slick and unstable. Hundreds of other fans on the floor above — unaware of the lethal crush below — were still pouring into the building’s lobby from entrances on either side, heaping pressure onto the people trapped on the stairs underneath.

   The bottom of the stairwell — only 12 feet by 7 feet wide — was blocked by four metal fire doors. They only opened outward, and were thus held shut by the weight of the crowd in front of them. The crush was so intense that it squeezed the air from the lungs of those inside, Mollen’s report said. Some bodies were pushed upwards, their feet dangling off the ground, one plaintiff in a case against Combs testified in court.

   The New York Police Department received its first 911 call at 7:04 p.m. from Benjamin Andrews, one of the attendees, Mollen said. Andrews had just regained consciousness after losing air and becoming overheated in a wave of what he estimated to be 150 people crammed in the stairwell. His message to police over the phone was clear: “People are dying inside of City College.”

   According to Mollen’s report, Andrews’ cousin and two of his friends — among nine in total — died from injuries in the stampede that night, December 28, 1991.

   A narrow stairway leading to sets of closed doors is littered with flyers. Hundreds of students and visitors in the Nat Holman Gymnasium for the Dec. 28, 1991, celebrity basketball game were crushed in this stairwell, some slipping on flyers that littered the floor.

   When police arrived they found one of the organizers of the event — a little-known 22-year-old hip-hop producer named Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs — “standing there with two women, and all three had money in their hands,” officer Sean Harris testified later in the Manhattan Claims Court.

   Combs said in multiple testimonies, including as a witness in a 1998 trial, that he was immersed in the melee trying to help pull individuals from the stairwell.

   But Mollen’s report named Combs as one of the people responsible for the deaths, due to his failure to provide enough security personnel on the day. The surviving families of the victims sued Combs and others for $500 million. A court later held Combs — and Heavy D — 50% liable for the stampede. Combs settled eight of nine wrongful death suits, paying about $600,000 in settlements.”

   It’s a long article that goes on to talk about other events, but I’m not sure if it mentions more about the actual settlements. Is it $600k for all of the 8 families? Or per family. Either way it doesn’t seem like those families were compensated properly.

2. Apparently a girl was rapped at this event before the tragic stampede.

3. For us old folks it was obvi that he was a monster straight out the gate.

4. There is a great Behind the Bastards series of episodes on Diddy. Talks about this exact thing and many other things like this he did.

5. thought everyone knew this honestly

6. First time hearing about this. Woah

7. Look, this man clearly is fucked and an asshole but this is bad journalism. You don’t need to add stuff like this to an article that’s just a recap of what is currently happening.

   Sometimes bad shit happens at events and in hindsight you see what you did wrong by not hiring enough staff to secure the event and see things don’t get out of hand but if you’re being realistic this doesn’t make him more evil or shitty.

   This is a similar vibe of the Astroworld incident that people blamed Travis Scott solely for happening but there were several factors. The universe is chaos and we can do better but freak accidents happen. Large crowds can be dangerous. Diddy is a bad person despite this.

8. One of my former HS classmates died at this event. He was like 20 years old. A lot of people in my graduating class never cared for Diddy.

9. This is covered in the new documentary about him that Peacock put out a few weeks ago.

10. Wow

    This guy wakes up and says

    “What kind of terrible thing have I not been involved in yet? I need some new goals.”

    He really wants to cover all areas

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