If the 9mm hollow-point bullet fired directly into her face a quarter century ago had proved fatal, Natania Reuben would be long dead, and there would have been no teenage daughter to call to her from the top of the stairs on Monday night.
“She says, mommy, guess who’s in custody?” Reuben later told the Daily Beast. “I asked her if it was somebody locally in town that we know. And she’s like, ‘No, he’s bigger.’”
Reuben then saw something akin to bewilderment in the eyes of her daughter, Nirvana. Reuben realized that she was talking about the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, also known as Puffy and Diddy.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding me, really?’ She said, ‘Yes!’ I just screamed out to God, ‘Thank you, merciful father!’”
Back on Dec. 27 of 1999, Reuben had been at Club New York in Manhattan, helping a friend promote an upcoming New Year’s event. Combs had arrived with Jennifer Lopez, his girlfriend at the time. He was also accompanied by his bodyguard, Anthony “Wolf” Jones and a rap protegee, Shyne Barrow.