50 cent gets ambushed
Saw this on ht
By Toby Forage
September 12, 2003
BAD-boy rapper 50 Cent reportedly dodged 10 bullets in a dash for his life as hitmen tried to knock him off at a Jersey City hotel on the US east coast earlier this week.
The former drug dealer - whose real name is Curtis Jackson - was pulling into the car park of the Doubletree Hotel when he and his posse were allegedly ambushed by an unconfirmed number of assailants.
50 Cent and his entourage then reportedly ducked and weaved their way into the hotel lobby where they took cover until the gunfire ended.
Nobody was hurt in the incident. Neither local police nor the hotel were able confirm to NEWS.com.au exactly when the incident occurred, although US reports say it was the early hours of Wednesday morning (early Wednesday afternoon AEST).
New Jersey police have launched a desperate appeal to the 27-year-old for his side of the story.
By the time police had arrived, the Eminem protege and his crew had left the scene.
Local police chief Ronald Buonocore said: "We're giving them an opportunity to come forward without using warrants."
Fellow officers have retrieved a video surveillance tape from the hotel and are examining it with New York City police in an attempt to identify those involved.
Ten bullet casings - seven from a .40 calibre handgun and three from a .45 - were collected for forensic testing.
Police are also investigating the failure of hotel staff to call emergency services until 30 minutes after the shots were fired.
A spokesman for the hotel said: "It's clear to us that [the police] needed to be called faster and that in the confusion after the shooting they didn't call fast enough and we apologise for that."
The shooting is the latest in a series of violent incidents to rock the hip hop fraternity. Last week, D.O. Cannon - an artist signed to rival hip hop label Murder Inc. was gunned down in Queens.
That shooting came just days after the murder of another rapper, Shadaha (Jah) Bey, who was a member of 50 Cent's crew, G Unit.
50 Cent has survived attempts on his life in the past, including a shooting in which he was wounded nine times and a stabbing. He now wears a bullet-proof vest in public.
The rapper, whose mother dealt drugs and was killed when he was just 8, sold 872,000 copies of his debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin, in just four days following its release last February.
Music industry leader Billboard reports the album has now sold in excess of three million copies. With The Associated Press
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