LA Times story linking Sean Combs to Tupac shooting in doubt

Shakur was shot five times at a Manhattan recording studio in Nov. 30, 1994, and he later reportedly accused Combs of organizing the hit. The shooting, and his subsequent murder two years later, have raised conspiracy theories for years.

The LA Times reported last week that "newly discovered information, including interviews with people who were at the studio that night [when Shakur was shot], lends credence to Shakur's insistence that associates of rap impresario Sean 'Diddy' Combs were behind the assault."

The article, written by Times reporter Chuck Philips, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, said the hit was ordered by Combs's people "to punish Shakur for disrespecting them and rejecting their business overtures and, not incidentally, to curry favor with Combs."

Combs denied the story last week, calling it a "lie," and chastised the newspaper for publishing it 14 years after the incident. "It is beyond ridiculous and completely false," he said, adding that neither he nor the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. had any knowledge of the attack. "I am shocked that the Los Angeles Times would be so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story," he said in a statement.

That could have been the end of it, but the LA Times story came under scrutiny today when the Smoking Gun web site reported that the newspaper had actually been duped by a federal inmate, James Sabatino, who fabricated FBI documents presented to the reporter who wrote the story.

"The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G.," the Smoking Gun reported.

As a result of the controversy, the recently appointed editor of the newspaper, Russ Stanton, today announced that he has opened an investigation into the story. "Questions have been raised about the authenticity of documents that we relied on for a story on the assault of Tupac Shakur in New York," Stanton said. "We are taking this very seriously and have begun our own investigation," the New York Times reported.

Shakur did not die in the 1994 attack, but two years later he was murdered. The rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting on the night of Sep. 7, 1996, after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.