Gunfire at Hot 97
A shooting outside 395 Hudson St., the home of Hot 97, the rap FM radio station, at 10 p.m. Mon. Feb. 28, ended with Kevin Reed, 24, of Los Angeles, being taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital with a gunshot wound in the groin, police said.
The shooting on the street in front of the building between Houston and Clarkson Sts. took place during an argument between the entourages of the rapper, 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) and The Game (Jason Taylor).
50 Cent said during an on-air interview that night that he was expelling his protégé, The Game, from his crew. Reed was said to be a member of The Game’s entourage whose members had driven to the station to protest the insult. The two groups coincided outside the building, but neither 50 Cent nor The Game were among them when the shooting began, according to a Newsday article.
Hot 97, on the seventh floor of the building, was where a morning show DJ recently played a song with lyrics that mocked the Asian victims of the tsunami. The sidewalk in front of the station was also the scene of a Feb. 2001 shooting involving the entourage of the rapper Lil’ Kim.
Lil’ Kim’s federal court trial for perjury in connection with her grand jury testimony on the 2001 shooting began March 1. The perjury charge involves her testimony that she did not know two suspects in the case, Suif Jackson and Damion Butler, both of whom have pleaded guilty in connection with the 2001 shooting. The Federal Court judge on Feb. 28 ruled that the prosecution may offer as evidence a video showing Jackson and Butler with Lil Kim in a performance.
Subway death
Kai Tam, 69, of 43-30 46th St., Sunnyside, was struck and killed by a northbound N train at the Canal St. station, at 12:51 a.m. Tues. March 1, police said. No criminality was suspected.
East River body found
The body of an unidentified man was taken from the East River at Catherine Slip and South St. at 2:10 p.m. Sat. Feb. 26, police said. The Medical Examiner’s office is investigating the cause of death.
Murder-robbery arrest
A fourth suspect, Servisio Simmon, 21, of 60 Baruch Dr., was arrested on Mon., Feb. 28, and charged murder in connection with the Jan. 27 shooting death of Nicole duFresne during a Jan. 27 robbery on the Lower East Side.
Simmon was among the group that held up duFresne and her three friends at Clinton and Rivington Sts., according to the charge.
Rudy Fleming, 19, of Staten Island was arrested shortly after the incident and charged with being the shooter in the case. Tatiana McDonald, 14, was subsequently arrested and charged with murder because she was a party to the robbery. The third arrest in the incident came on Feb. 2 when Ashley Evans, 18, of Queens was charged with murder because of participation in the robbery.
Servicio Simmon was identified by one of the other defendants as taking part in the robbery. He is the cousin of David Simmon, 18, who was arrested along with a 15-year-old boy at the same time as Fleming for beating and attempting to rob a Lower East Side bouncer earlier on the night that duFresne was shot to death. David Simmon and the 15-year-old were not with the group when they robbed duFresne and her friends, according to police.
—Albert Amateau
WWW Downtown Express
