Diddy arrested at UCLA
The rapper is accused of assault with a kettlebell at a UCLA athletic training facility.
Rapper is detained on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on campus where his son plays football.
Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon at UCLA, where his son plays football.
UC police officers arrested Combs, 45, about 12: 30 p. m. at the Acosta Athletic Training Complex after he allegedly assaulted someone with a kettlebell — a round piece of weightlifting equipment with a handle that is usually made of cast iron.
Authorities declined to identify the victim or to detail what led up to the incident.
No one was seriously injured, police said.
Combs was taken to the Los Angeles County Sheriff ’ s Department Inmate Reception Center on Monday evening and booked on felony charges including three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of making terrorist threats and one count of battery. He was later released on bail.
The rapper’s son Justin is a defensive back on the Bruins football team.
“I’m thankful that our staff showed the level of professionalism that they did in handling this situation,” Bruins head coach Jim Mora said in a statement.
“This is an unfortunate incident for all parties involved,” he said, adding that while the university’s Police Department “continues to review this matter, we will let the legal process run its course and refrain from fur-
ther comment at this time.”
Calls to Combs’ representatives for comment were not returned.
Combs is one of two rap moguls with sons playing football for the Bruins. The other is Snoop Dogg, whose son Cordell Broadus is also on the team.
Justin Combs, who graduated from Iona Prep in New Rochelle, N. Y., in 2012, accepted a full merit- based athletic scholarship to play football at UCLA.
He turned down scholarship offers from Illinois, Virginia and Wyoming.
When some questioned whether he should have received the financial help given his father’s wealth, Justin Combs defended the decision on Twitter.
“Regardless what the circumstances are, I put that work in!!!! PERIOD,” he wrote in 2012.
According to his biography on the Bruins’ website, Justin Combs has played in seven games. He is listed as a redshirt junior, which means he is eligible to play this year and next.
Monday’s incident is just the latest in Sean Combs’ high- profile encounters with the law.
He was arrested in 1999 for his involvement in the beating of former Interscope executive Steve Stoute in New York. Combs apologized, the charges were reduced, and he was ordered to attend an anger management class.
Combs and Stoute have since mended their relationship, appearing onstage together at Cannes in 2013.
In 2001, jurors found Combs not guilty on charges of weapons possession and attempted bribery that stemmed from a 1999 shooting at a crowded Manhattan dance club.
Combs testified he had no role in the shooting, which occurred after his entourage got into an altercation with others at the club.
After the shooting, Combs and then- girlfriend Jennifer Lopez f led in a sport utility vehicle that police stopped several blocks away.
A gun was found in the vehicle. Combs was acquitted on a charge that he tried to bribe his driver to say he owned the weapon.
The nightclub incident occurred two years after Combs was a witness to the killing of Christopher Wallace, better known as Notorious B. I. G., outside an industry party in Los Angeles.
Wallace was shot to death six months after Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas. Shakur, a rival rap star, had previously accused Combs of setting him up to be shot and robbed at a New York studio.
Earlier this year, an Arizona man accused Combs of punching him in the face at a Super Bowl party. Combs was not arrested.