An 18-page Los Angeles Police Department report of the shooting exclusively obtained by USA TODAY makes no mention of the bloody scene
Diddy wins dismissal of civil racketeering claims in Lil Rod suit
A federal judge has dismissed civil racketeering and breach of contract claims against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in a lawsuit filed by former producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones.
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LOS ANGELES ― Producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr. says he was two feet from a closed bathroom door inside Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Los Angeles music studio when shots rang out on September 12, 2022.
When the door opened, Combs and his son, Justin Dior Combs, allegedly walked out, leaving a third man bleeding on the floor in a fetal position with gunshot wounds, Jones says in a civil lawsuit.
Jones says he rushed in, put pressure on a wound to the victim’s torso and lifted him onto the toilet seat, instructing an assembled crowd to call 911. He then carried the victim, a musician nicknamed “G,” to the front of Chalice Recording Studios to await an ambulance, Jones’ lawsuit claims. The man survived.
Photos included in the suit show blood dripping from the toilet seat down the side of the bowl, more blood on the floor, clothing strewn on and near the toilet, and stained and crumpled paper towels. Jones also says he still has the clothing he was wearing that day, which may still have the victim’s DNA on it.
But an 18-page Los Angeles Police Department report of the shooting exclusively obtained by USA TODAY makes no mention of the bloody scene.
Instead, it shows that police focused their efforts on an altercation outside the studio. The report paints a far different picture than the one described in Jones’ suit and raises questions about what really happened. Did the shooting follow an argument among the three men inside the building, as Jones suit alleges? Or was it the result of an attempted robbery outside that had nothing to do with the music mogul, as the police report indicates?
According to Jones, Combs insisted that he tell the police “G” had been shot in a drive-by outside, rather than after “a heated conversation” inside.
In a letter to Jones’ lawyer, Tyrone A. Blackburn, which was filed as an exhibit in the case, attorney Jonathan D. Davis called Jones’ allegations “bald-faced lies,” saying: “Mr. Combs and his son were never suspects, never investigated and never interviewed by police.”
The police report obtained by USA TODAY confirms that Sean Combs was inside the studio when the shooting occurred but doesn’t list him or his son among the people questioned.
Blackburn says there’s a reason for that.
“As we’ve said from the beginning,” he said, “this was a huge coverup.”
Davis did not return a telephone call from USA TODAY. One of Combs’ lead civil attorneys, Erica A. Wolff, did not immediately return phone or email messages.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said detectives were unavailable and told a reporter to file a records request.
The shooting victim could not be reached. USA TODAY is not publishing his name because he was the victim of a violent crime.
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Combs faces charges but not for Chalice Studios shooting
Jones worked as a producer on Combs’ 2023 “The Love Album: Off the Grid.”
In September 2024, more than six months after Jones’ civil suit was filed, Sean Combs was arrested on federal criminal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs, who has been in custody ever since, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His trial is scheduled to begin May 5.
Jones’ suit remains pending in the Southern District of New York. In the complaint, Blackburn stated that he has spoken with several other witnesses who would corroborate that the shooting occurred inside, but declined to name them.
Blackburn has also voluntarily removed several record companies and executives initially named as defendants from the lawsuit. In December 2024, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken denied their attorneys’ motion for sanctions against Blackburn, saying there was “insufficient evidence for the Court to conclude that he has engaged in a pattern of bad faith.” Last month, Oetken dismissed five of Jones’ nine claims, including racketeering. The judge allowed claims of sexual assault, sex trafficking and failure to keep property safe to move forward. The judge warned Blackburn that he cannot use the federal charges against Combs as evidence of guilt.
Sean Combs also faces dozens of civil lawsuits alleging sexual assaults dating back to the 1990s.
One of them was filed by his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, who can be seen being physically assaulted by Combs on surveillance video from a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Combs’ legal team has alleged the video, made public by CNN in 2024, had been altered. CNN has denied the allegation.
Ventura’s suit, which Combs settled for an undisclosed amount the day after it was filed, alleged that at the time of the incident, Combs paid the hotel $50,000 for the footage. Other ongoing civil suits allege that he has paid off and coerced victims and witnesses not to talk about sexual assaults and other criminal behavior ― claims Combs’ attorneys have repeatedly denied.
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Four men have been charged with the shooting and attempted robbery of “G”, along with a string of other crimes over an 11-month period beginning in December 2021, according to information filed in the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County.
According to the police report obtained by USA TODAY, one of those men, Rudolph Flowers, allegedly shot “G” as he got into his car about half a block from Chalice Studios, where he had just left “a meet and greet for up-and-coming artists (and) industry people.” Afterward, the victim ran back to the studio for help and was sitting in a black folding chair outside when police arrived, the report says.
Police collected surveillance video from a nearby business that showed “G” struggling with another man as he got into his car, but not the shooting itself. The report does not indicate any attempt by officers to obtain security camera footage from Chalice Studios.
Flowers and the three other men have pleaded not guilty. Charges against a woman initially charged in the case have been dismissed, according to court records.
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A chaotic scene and a ghost gun
Before a hearing in the case against Flowers on April 4, a reporter asked prosecutors about the possibility that “G” was shot inside Combs’ studio. One of them said the reporter was “barking up the wrong tree.”
The police report that forms the basis for the charges describes a chaotic scene.
It says the victim and a woman had just left Chalice Studios and were getting into his car when a masked man armed with a gun jumped into the passenger seat. The woman left and the victim struggled for the gun and grabbed it. When he got out of the car, “there was another suspect,” the report says.
“It was then that he realized he was shot but could not recall if it happened inside the car or when he had got out onto the street,” the report says. The victim then ran back toward the studio for help.
The victim said he had been wearing a gold Rolex but had not been “showing it off.”
“During the shooting, rapper Sean Combs (Puff Daddy) was present in the studio,” the report says. “Officers believe that (the victim) may have been part of Sean Combs’ entourage.”
The report also stated: “(The victim) said he had no arguments or confrontations with anyone inside.”
The report says surveillance video from a nearby business showed a man in dark clothing heading toward the victim’s car and “an altercation” in the street. The video did not record sound, and the report makes no mention of muzzle flashes being visible on it. A witness told officers he heard two shots and saw a man run to a car where another man was waiting. A second witness told police he heard three shots and saw “two different muzzle flashes that appeared to be shooting at each other.”
The officers who initially responded to the scene found blood on the doorjamb of the victim’s car and on rear driver’s side door, the report says.
About 10-to-15 feet from where the victim was first treated, police also found a “ghost gun” ― an illegal weapon without a serial number. The weapon had blood spots on it and was located “near a small plant like it was trying to be concealed.”
After telling the officers what happened, the victim, who was in pain, “refused to answer questions and became irate upon further questioning. (He) stated he was not involved in an altercation with anyone at the location and did not know who may have shot him.” The report mentions that the man was treated for one gunshot wound. Jones contends there were two.
The victim told officers he had not been carrying a gun that night, but according to the report, they didn’t believe him.
“Officers believe that (the victim) was in possession of a concealed unregistered “ghost gun due to … statements of two different muzzle flashes of firearms shooting toward each other, (the victim’s) vicinity to where the firearm was located and the way the firearm was placed in order to conceal it from officers,” the report says.
Online court records do not show any pending criminal charges against the man in connection with the illegal gun.
Gina Barton is an investigative reporter at USA TODAY who covers criminal justice. Will Carless is a national correspondent and reported from Los Angeles. Reach them on X, @writerbarton and @willcarless.
