Lil' Kim Denies Connection to Shootout
February 27 -- Police are investigating a shootout outside a New York radio station that erupted Sunday shortly after rapper Lil' Kim left the scene.
One man was injured in the afternoon shooting outside of the Greenwich Village studios of WQHT radio, in which 21 bullets were fired and five weapons used, police said. Investigators said the shooting started after Kim, a 4-foot, 11-inch rapper known for her blond wig and raunchy lyrics, was leaving the Hot 97 studio just as rapper Capone, one half of the duo Capone-N-Noreaga, arrived.
Lil' Kim's manager, Hillary Weston, said in a statement on Monday that she and her bodyguards had nothing to do with the shooting.
"Lil' Kim and her security had nothing to do whatsoever with the incident at Hot 97," Weston said. "Lil' Kim had no knowledge of any argument or what instigated the gunfire."
Witnesses have told detectives, however, that Lil' Kim had just walked out of the studios and entered her limo when the gunfire erupted, according to The Associated Press. A security video seized by police shows the limo starting to pull away, then stopping to allow four or five men to jump in before racing off, an anonymous police source told the news service.
The security video also shows a Ford Explorer, believed to carrying Kiam "Capone" Holley, arrive at the station shortly after Lil' Kim exited, the source said. Moments later, it shows "people frantically running in all directions," the source told the AP.
No arrests have been made in the case.
Detectives are investigating a possible connection to an ongoing feud between Kim, born Kimberly Jones, and the Capone-N-Noreaga team.
Kim dissed rival female rapper Foxy Brown in a 1999 remix of the Mobb Deep song "Quiet Storm (White Lines)." The younger Brown struck back last year with "Big Bang," from Capone-N-Noreaga's The Reunion. Brown was not at the radio station Sunday, according to her representative.
The injured man, a friend of Capone's named Efrain Ocasio, told police they were going into the studio when a group of men arrived and opened fire. Ocasio was released from the hospital yesterday.
