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Source: Eduardo Frederiksen / Getty / Atlanta Bus Hijacking
A scene reminiscent of the film SPEED starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock went down in Atlanta, and it also had a plot twist not even Tyler Perry would think of for one of his films.
Spotted on TMZ, an Atlanta city bus was hijacked by a crook, holding the driver at gunpoint and taking passengers hostage, leading ATL police on a high-speed chase that left one person dead.
Thanks to aerial footage, viewers were locked in as law enforcement was in hot pursuit of the bus as it plowed through Atlanta traffic, smashing civilian vehicles, including cop cars, in a chase that went on for miles on Tuesday.
The suspect, Joseph Grier, a convicted felon with 19 prior arrests, commanded the bus driver, Ernst Antoine, who was only on the job for three months, to drive after shooting and killing a passenger.
Speaking exclusively with ABC’s Good Morning America, Antoine said he was “ready to die” for the bus passengers and felt his handling of the situation “was right because people always coming first.”
When police finally got the bus to stop, the hostages ran for safety, and the suspect was immediately taken into custody, but that part didn’t play out so smoothly.
Speaking with PEOPLE, a passenger revealed that Grier “threw his gun and tried to disguise himself as one of the victims.”
When Antoine got off the bus, police mistook him for the suspect he revealed before pointing the cops in the right direction.
“When I get out, the police point the gun on me. I said, ‘No, I’m not the killer. I’m the driver.’ And they asked me, ‘Who is the killer?’ I say, ‘Him,’” Antoine told GMA.
This Bus Hijacking Is The Most Atlanta Thing Ever
The hijacking only gets more interesting. Not too long after the incident, an interview featuring Grier talking to reporters following a shooting at the Peachtree Center, leaving four people shot, surfaced.
In the interview, Grier discussed what he witnessed at the shooting before later boarding the bus and getting into a fight with another passenger.
Another passenger on the bus with a gun attempted to stop the fight, leading to Grier stealing the gun and shooting and killing the person trying to break up the fight.
As for his reasoning for his behavior, Grier, 39, claims he has bipolar disorder and has been off his meds for weeks.
We shall see how this plays out.
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There was a reason Sean “Diddy” Combs didn’t actually apologize to Cassie in his much-criticized mea culpa video last weekend. Apparently, the disgraced Hip-Hop mogul is not legally allowed to say his ex-girlfriend’s name, and vice versa.
In late 2023, former Bad Boy Records artist Cassie sued Diddy, accusing him of years of sexual abuse and sex trafficking and domestic violence, amongst other heinous crimes. Diddy infamously settled the lawsuit a day later, with speculation that he had to hand over a hefty sum of money.
According to TMZ, sources who are familiar with the settlement say it includes an airtight NDA (non-disclosure agreement) that prevents either Diddy or Cassie from uttering each other’s names.
Nevertheless, the NDA hasn’t prevented Cassie’s attorney from lighting into Diddy when he dropped his maligned apology video or when CNN released the hotel footage of the “Been Around The World” rapper beating his ex-girlfriend.
Reportedly, Diddy wanted to say Cassie’s name in his video statement but his attorneys reviewed the video before it was posted to ensure their client didn’t break the NDA.
With Diddy facing so much litigation, and the wrath of the court of public opinion, don’t expect him to be making any more public statements anytime soon.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs has a lot of explaining to do. In hotel surveillance footage obtained by CNN, a man who allegedly looks like Diddy is seen hitting, kicking and dragging who is reportedly Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway.
Trigger Warning.
According to CNN, the footage is from 2016. What is seen in the video reportedly lines up with what Cassie recounted in her initial lawsuit against Diddy in late 2023, where she accused him of years of domestic violence and sexual assault. Diddy infamously quickly settled the case a day after the lawsuit was filed.
Reports CNN:
The footage, compiled from multiple camera angles dated March 5, 2016, appears to show the rapper, producer and business mogul during an incident that, according to Ventura’s complaint, occurred at the now-closed InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. CNN verified the location based on publicly available photos of the former hotel’s interior.
In the video, Ventura exits a hotel room and walks to a bank of elevators. Combs, holding a towel around his waist, runs down a hall after Ventura. He grabs her by the back of the neck and throws her to the floor. Still holding his towel closed with one hand, he then turns to kick her, the video shows.
As Ventura is on the ground, Combs retrieves a purse and suitcase from the floor near the elevators. He turns around and kicks Ventura again as she lies motionless on the floor. About four seconds transpire between the two kicks, according to the video. He then briefly drags Ventura by her sweatshirt toward a room before walking away.
But the altercation doesn’t stop there.
Ventura is then seen slowly standing up. She gathers items from the floor and moves to pick up a phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Combs, still in a towel and socks, returns. A mirror directly across from the security camera shows Combs appearing to shove Ventura.
Seconds later, he sits down on a chair, grabs an object off a table and forcefully throws it toward Ventura. Combs is seen walking away, then turns toward Ventura once again when an elevator door opens and someone appears to exit.
The incident reportedly occurred at the since-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. Cassie has reportedly declined to comment about the release of the footage.
The reaction on social media has been swift, and the consensus seems to be that Diddy is a monster. See for yourself in the gallery.
This story is developing.
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Media personality DJ Akademiks has been sued for rape, sexual assault and defamation by his alleged ex-girlfriend. Fauziya Abashec claims she was raped by two men and Akademiks, born Livingston Allen, in his home in 2022.
Rolling Stone initially reported about the lawsuit, and the detailed claims it contains are heinous. Abashec aka “Ziya” alleged that she dated that media personality after meeting him in 2001. But in 2002, after what she says was about a year of not seeing him, he allegedly invited her over to his home.
But while she expected just Akademiks, she was met by two as yet unnamed men. She claims the men drugged and raped her on Akademiks’ pool deck. She also claims that sometime during the night, Akademiks sexually assaulted her, too.
Reports Rolling Stone:
Abashe says the drugs “impacted her memory and caused her to lose consciousness,” according to the suit. She claims she was later woken up at around 4 a.m. (July 17, 2022) in a bedroom by Allen, who was “pulling her hair, prying open her legs, and brutally raping her,” she claims. Abashe accuses Allen of penetrating her anally and vaginally and says she was “begging” him to stop and “crying for most of this assault but losing her ability to move physically.”
The following day, according to the lawsuit, Abashe asked Allen for details about what happened the previous night. He allegedly showed her a trashcan that contained two condom wrappers, which suggested to Abashe that, after the alleged pool deck attack, the two John Does had “taken her into another room in the house and continued to rape her brutally.” Abashe also claimed that Allen showed her surveillance footage of the alleged pool deck attack.
“According to Ms. Abashe, as she watched the video, she looked like she was just lying there lifeless, which did not sit right with her,” the suit reads.
Abashe claims she has text messages that support her story.
The victim also reportedly contacted the police, who suggest she go to the hospital for a rape kit. Reportedly, traces of Akademiks’ sperm was found after testing. Then, Ziya allegedly managed to get Akademiks to allegedly admit to the assault via a story that reads straight out of an episode of Law & Order: SVU.
Reports Rolling Stone:
After contacting her lawyer for advice, Abashe went to the police. The authorities first told her to visit a hospital for a rape kit, which she did; the kit purportedly led to the discovery of traces of Allen’s sperm, she claims. Abashe then spoke with the authorities in person and photographs were taken of bruises on Abashe’s arm, back, buttocks, and legs.
Abashe also sat for a “recorded wire call” with Allen, during which, she claimed, Allen “graphically recount[ed] and admit[ed] to having sexual intercourse” with her, “even going so far as to describe her vagina.”
This led the cops to obtain a warrant for the surveillance footage and other evidence. Abashe later claimed that Allen “disposed of several items (bed sheets, etc.) at the dumpster near his office. Presumably, Mr. Allen was attempting to destroy the evidence of Ms. Abashe’s rape.”
However, Ziya chose not to go to the police. Instead, she decided to pursue the lawsuit after partial details of the incident made it onto social media in late 2023. In a video called Story time with Ak! DJ Akademiks exposes his Ex Chey & speaks on her trying to ruin his Image!, Akademiks said, “She was getting trained by my two mens on my pool deck.” Ziya maintains she defamed before Akademiks was aware that she had no recollection of what happened yet he asserted that he didn’t know she was assaulted, allegedly.
That video, where Ak starts detailing the cops raiding home (see below), is still up and is surely evidence now. So far, DJ Akademiks has not commented on the lawsuit. Check out some of the reactions on Xitter to these allegations in the gallery.
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Polo G was arrested on Wednesday (April 10) in New York on a pair of weapons charges, a spokesperson for the NYPD confirmed to Billboard on Friday (April 12).
Police relayed that the Chicago rapper — born Taurus Bartlett — was arrested and brought into custody on charges of criminal possession of a firearm as well as criminal possession of a weapon.
“On Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at approximately 1209 hours, police responded to a 911 call for found property at 246 Spring Street,” the NYPD spokesperson said via email. “Upon arrival, it was reported to officers that there is a firearm at the location. An individual was placed into custody at the location without incident.”
Based on the address given by law enforcement, it appears the arrest took place at The Dominick hotel in New York’s SoHo neighborhood earlier this week.
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According to TMZ, a loaded Glock 23 was discovered by a Dominick hotel employee who alerted local authorities. Police executed a search warrant of the room and found the weapon before arresting the “Pop Out” rapper. Polo G was allegedly carrying about $23,000 in cash at the time of the arrest.
This is far from Polo’s first run-in with the law. The rapper was arrested in August 2023 after police raided his California home and found “numerous firearms” there. The raid followed Polo G’s brother, Taurean Bartlett (a.k.a. Trench Baby), being identified as a suspect in a California robbery. According to the LAPD, when the alleged victim arrived at Taurean’s house to film a music video, the rapper pulled out a “handgun and demanded that the victim transfer money to an unknown account.”
LAPD Detectives subsequently obtained an arrest warrant for Taurean and discovered that he was living with Polo G. When the firearms were discovered at the residence, police arrested both brothers. In that incident, Polo G was booked for possession of a rifle at Van Nuys Jail.
Polo G has been working toward the release of his anticipated fourth album. His third LP, Hall of Fame, arrived in 2021 and notched him his first Billboard 200 No. 1 with 143,000 equivalent album units earned in the first week.
Billboard has reached out to Polo G’s reps for comment.
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We may not know exactly where Sean “Diddy” Combs is after the Feds raided his homes on both coasts, but his lawyers are speaking up for him. In a statement, the Bad Boy Record’s founder’s attorney likened Homeland Security’s raids on his client’s homes to a “witch hunt.”
On Monday, March 25, Diddy’s Miami and Los Angeles homes were descended upon by armed federal officers in a coordinated effort between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. The latter is reportedly investigating Diddy for sex trafficking tied to at least several lawsuits that accuse the mogul of multiple instances of sexual assault.
However, in a statement to the media, Diddy’s lawyers say the Feds’ actions were “meritless.”
Said Combs’ lawyer Aaron Dyer: “This unprecedented ambush — paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence — leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
He added, “There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”
Despite rumors that Diddy had fled the country, he is reportedly still in America. Although a private jet that allegedly belongs to Combs landed in Antigua after his homes were raided, Diddy was not aboard.
TMZ has footage of Diddy speaking to the authorities
This story is developing.
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The Feds have reportedly raided multiple homes of Sean “Diddy” Combs. The Bad Boy Records founder’s homes in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami were all seemingly raided simultaneously.
TMZ initially reported that law enforcement rolled up into Diddy’s Beverly Hills home. FOX 11 Los Angeles noted that the raid was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.
Allegedly the raids are in connection with a federal sex trafficking investigation. That would explain the reasoning behind an execution of warrants across multiple states at the same time.
Footage of authorities holding rifles and taking people who were in the homes into custody have started making the social media rounds.
Unsubstantiated word is that King Combs and Justin Combs were detained.
Reports SkyFOX:
SkyFOX flew over Combs’ home Monday afternoon and showed federal agents conducting their investigation at his home.
FOX 11’s ground crew at the scene said the home was registered to Bad Boys Films, which is a division of Bad Boy Entertainment, along with one of Combs’ daughters.
SkyFOX also captured images of a few people coming out of the home who were subsequently detained.
Per Homeland Security, “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.”
Check out reactions on X, formerly know as Twitter, in the gallery.
This story is developing.
It’s been impossible to avoid hearing Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s name over the past week. The former inmate who was sentenced to a decade in prison in 2016 after pleading guilty to enticing a boyfriend she met online to kill her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, was released on Dec. 28 after serving 85 percent of her […]
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Things are not looking too good for the President of the United State’s oldest living son.
On Thursday (Dec. 7), Hunter Biden was indicted on nine tax charges in California after a special counsel investigation into the business dealings, according to the Associated Press. In all, Biden—who was already facing federal firearms charges in Delaware alleging that he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018—is looking at three felonies and six misdemeanors under the new filing.
Special Council David Wiess said in a statement that Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.”
From AP:
The charges are centered on at least $1.4 million in taxes Hunter Biden owed during between 2016 and 2019, a period where he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. The back taxes have since been paid.
If convicted, Hunter Biden, 53, could receive a maximum of 17 years in prison. The special counsel probe remains open, Weiss said.
In response to the indictment, Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, accused Weiss of “bowing to Republican pressure” by prosecuting President Joe Biden’s son for alleged infractions he wouldn’t have prosecuted otherwise. “Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought,” Lowell said in a statement.
Lowell might be on to something, especially regarding the Delaware charges. Republicans are so anti-gun regulation that they fall all over themselves to defend guns after mass shootings, and under Donald Trump, an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for people with mental illness to buy guns was rolled back. Certainly, right-wing Second Amendment advocates would stand against a person being prosecuted for owning guns just because he has a history of drug use—unless we’re talking about the son of a Democratic commander-in-chief, of course.
As for the charges in California, where Hunter lives, Thursday’s filing details how the accused allegedly spent money on drugs, strippers, luxury hotels, exotic cars and, “in short, everything but his taxes.”
As AP noted, the “indictment comes as congressional Republicans pursue an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, claiming he was engaged in an influence-peddling scheme with his son.” Of course, there has been zero evidence presented that indicates the president had anything to do with his son’s alleged activities, or that Joe Biden accepted any bribes or abused his role in office in any way, as his opponents have claimed. But Republicans aren’t likely to let facts get in the way of a good political prosecution, which is what they claim all the indictments of Trump are.
Anyway, Lowell indicated that he plans to fight the new charges against his client and that he will motion for dismissal of the Delaware charges next week, calling them “unprecedented and unconstitutional.”
Young Thug’s attorney told jurors Tuesday (Nov. 28) that his client was “born into a society filled with despair” and merely rapped about violent crime because “these are the stories he knew” — and that prosecutors had cherry-picked lyrics that matched the crimes they hoped to pin against him.
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A day after Atlanta prosecutors kicked off the artist’s racketeering trial by accusing Thug (Jeffery Williams) of running a criminal street gang that operated like a “pack” of wolves, his attorney, Brian Steel, responded by telling the jury that the rapper “doesn’t even know most of the people in this indictment” and had no reason to run a criminal organization.
“He’s not sitting there telling people to kill people,” Steel said. “He doesn’t need their money. Jeffery is worth tens of millions of dollars.”
In addition to refuting each of the alleged “overt acts” that form the basis for the RICO case against Thug, Steel defended his client’s First Amendment right to rap about the dangerous conditions he faced growing up in Atlanta’s Cleveland Avenue neighborhood.
“Yes, he speaks about ‘killing 12’ and people being shot and drugs and drive-by shootings,” Steel said, referring to a phrase that allegedly refers to murdering police. “This is the environment he grew up in. These are the people he knew, these are the stories he knew. These are the words he rhymed.”
“This is art,” Steel added. “This is freedom of speech.”
Thug (Jeffery Williams) was indicted last year on accusations that his “YSL” was not really a record label/music collective called “Young Stoner Life,” but a violent Atlanta gang called “Young Slime Life” that committed murders, carjackings, drug dealing and other crimes over the course of a decade.
Along with other charges, Thug stands accused of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a law based on the more famous federal RICO statute that’s been used to target the mafia, drug cartels and other forms of organized crime. If convicted on all eight of his counts, Thug faces decades in prison.
Go read an explainer of the YSL case here, including a full breakdown of the charges and a deep-dive into the background of the accusations.
Throughout his opening statements Tuesday, Steel told a story of a young, impoverished kid whose disdain for police and the justice system stemmed from real-life instances of neglect and mistreatment. Steel said Thug had watched presumably innocent people face serious consequences after “snitches” told lies to them, and had witnessed his mother be handcuffed after his brother had been shot. During that incident, Steel said Thug had watched police place a sheet over his brother’s face despite the fact that he was still breathing.
Describing his client as a malnourished child with rotted teeth, Steel said Thug had turned to rap as a way out of poverty. He “idolized” rappers Lil Wayne and 2Pac, the attorney told jurors, and even took his stage name from the latter’s 1995 song with Smooth titled “P.Y.T (Playa Young Thugs).” Steel said the stage name wasn’t intended to be menacing but is, instead, an acronym for ‘truly humbled under God.’
Steel spent a majority of his more than two hours of opening statements going through each of the individual charges and “overt acts” — the small actions that make up a RICO charge.
One of those alleged acts is that Young Thug rented a 2014 Silver Infiniti Q50 sedan that was allegedly used during the murder of a rival gang leader, Donovan Thomas, in 2015. But Steel denied that Thug had any involvement in the killing, saying he had regularly rented cars for friends and had been “sad” to learn of Thomas’ death.
Steel frequently criticized the use of rap lyrics as evidence — a controversial prosecutorial tactic that has drawn criticism in recent years. During Monday’s opening statements, for instance, prosecutors told jurors that a particular Thug lyric — “hundred rounds in a Tahoe” from the song “Slime Shit” — referred to Donovan’s killing in a Chevy Tahoe. But Steel disputed that argument, saying Thug rapped about various cars often and there was “no evidence of when that lyric was even created.”
At other points Tuesday, Steel repeatedly questioned the trustworthiness of Kenneth Copeland, a former YSL member who made headlines earlier this year when a video leaked showing him talking with police investigators. The attorney described Copeland as a “leech” and “snitch” who had lied to investigators to avoid facing his own criminal charges.
Copeland is listed as a prosecution witness in the case, and Steel’s statements — which suggested that Copeland could have actually committed some of the crimes in the indictment — indicate he believes Copeland could be a key witness for the other side.
Several of the alleged acts refuted by Steel involved riffs or interactions with other rappers, including the allegation that YSL affiliates had once fired gunshots at rapper Lil Wayne’s tour bus in service of Young Thug.
During his statements, Steel acknowledged that Thug had recorded a video about Wayne’s Atlanta appearance that showed him surrounded by people with guns. But he said Thug had been told to create the video by his management for entertainment reasons because such a beef “creates interest in fans.”
Steel also noted Thug’s publicized disputes with YFN Lucci. The attorney described Lucci as a less successful rapper who used Thug’s name for clout, including claiming to have sex with Thug’s fiancé. Steel asked the jury if the leader of a criminal street gang would’ve let that go unscathed for so long.
Thug’s attorney also alluded to Lil Uzi Vert, accusing prosecutors of misrepresenting text messages to make it appear that Thug was threatening the fellow rapper’s life when he wrote “YSL Rule the world kid. 24m on a nigga head…” Steel said the text was not a bounty but rather an innocuous reference to Vert’s highly-publicized decision to have a $24 million diamond implanted in his forehead.
The YSL trial will continue Wednesday with more opening statements from attorneys for the other five defendants (Marquavius Huey, Deamonte “Yak Gotti” Kendrick, Quamarvious Nichols, Rodalius Ryan and Shannon Stillwell). Once openers conclude, the district attorney’s office will begin presenting its case and calling witnesses – a process that could last months.