Rapper Capone and two of his associates were arrested early Friday morning (September 7) following a scuffle at a Queens, New York, nightclub. One member of Capone’s crew was wounded.
Two officers responding to a dispute involving a firearm at Club Juan Pachanga arrived at 3:45 a.m. and encountered Capone (born Kiam Holley), Marion Jefferson and Mesiah Watson, who were leaving the club, according to a police spokesperson. One of the officers, believing one of the men was carrying a gun, fired two shots, which missed the suspects, the spokesperson said.
The three men fled in a black Mercedes-Benz. The car was involved in a minor accident with a truck shortly after its departure, according to the police report. Authorities caught up with the vehicle a few blocks later and found Jefferson with a superficial neck wound that “could have been the result of bullet fragmentation,” the spokesperson said.
The rapper tells a different story. Capone said he and his friends were invited to the club, where they were attacked by a group of patrons, according to his publicist. They attempted to escape by driving away and their vehicle was fired upon by police arriving at the scene.
Witnesses at the club told police that Capone, half of rap duo Capone-N-Noreaga, and his friends were carrying guns, though no weapons were recovered from their vehicle.
Capone and Watson were immediately taken into custody, while Jefferson was treated at Long Island College Hospital before also being arrested. Capone and Jefferson were charged with assault in the second degree, an offense defined as the intent to cause physical injury with a deadly weapon, according to the Queens County District Attorney’s office, a charge that carries a minimum sentence of two to four years. Watson was charged with possession of marijuana.
Police said they recovered a loaded.380-caliber semiautomatic handgun at the club. Neither Capone nor his associates were charged with possessing it.
While police didn’t disclose further details of the case, the New York Daily News, citing a law-enforcement source, reported that the incident began when a club bouncer attempted to remove the.380-caliber gun from Capone. The ensuing fight left the club employee with a broken arm, according to the paper.
Capone and Jefferson were released Friday afternoon on $15,000 and $7,500 bail, respectively. The two are scheduled to face the charges in court October 11.
Gunplay isn’t new to Capone. The rapper spent 27 months at the Wyoming Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, for weapons possession before his February 1999 release.
