Jennifer Lopez’s management team is on “high alert” and has held crisis talks to prepare a plan in case the star is dragged into the ongoing criminal investigations into her ex Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Sources close to Lopez said Lopez’s team was weighing whether she should break her silence about her arrest with Combs in the Dec. 27, 1999, shooting of Natania Reuben and two others outside the Times Square Club in Manhattan.
Lopez spent 14 hours in a cell after being arrested with Combs and her bodyguard when police found a gun inside the car they used to flee the scene of the shooting.
Although Lopez was released and quickly cleared of all responsibility, Combs, his bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones and Jamal “Shyne” Barrow, a 21-year-old rapper, have all been charged.
Combs and Jones were acquitted, but Barrow was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon, first-degree assault and recklessly endangering others and served nine years in prison.
JLo and Diddy dated for two years before splitting in 2001; they are pictured together in February 2000.
However, Natania, who was left with bullet fragments permanently lodged in her face, has always maintained it was Diddy who pulled the trigger, and there are growing calls for the case to be reopened.
One theory is that Barrow took the blame for Diddy.
In a $30 million sexual assault lawsuit filed in February, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones claims Diddy bragged that on the night of the 1999 shooting Lopez “brought the gun to the club for (Combs) and passed the gun to him after he got into an altercation with another individual.”
While Lopez has never commented on the shooting, a source told DailyMail.com that her team is now considering whether to come forward while the music mogul’s shady past is in the spotlight.
The source added that the singer’s mother was also deeply concerned as she had always been opposed to her daughter’s relationship with Combs.
“Jennifer Lopez’s team is on high alert as they anticipate some drama as more people relive the Natania Reuben shooting,” a source said.
‘There were crisis talks this week to discuss how, and whether, Jennifer should respond if the ongoing case triggers the past.
‘Jennifer was present when the incident occurred and many people in the industry are looking at her askance.’
The former couple photographed at Diddy’s 4th of July party in 2000
Another source told DailyMail.com that Lopez’s team was working hard to make sure she wouldn’t be “blindsided” if she was dragged into Combs’ mess.
“Everyone who was ever connected to Diddy is going to be investigated now, and Jen has people looking into everything,” they said.
“She doesn’t think what happens to Diddy will have any negative impact, but she will do everything she can to avoid any future crisis.”
A source close to the show told DailyMail.com that JLo’s team is on “high alert” as they “anticipate some drama as more people relive the Natania Reuben shooting.” JLo again with Diddy (front left) with the likes of Billy Zane and the late Aaliyah
Natania Reuben was shot in the face at the New York Club in 1999
But a third source said Lopez was concerned and her team was preparing a plan..
‘If they reopen this case, they would drag her back into this situation that she has tried to forget for the past 25 years.
‘She’s had the worst year of her life and everything that happened with Diddy is nothing more than old wounds.’
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Lopez for comment.
Lopez has offered only scant details of her tumultuous two-year relationship with Combs.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
According to sources, JLo is ‘worried’ that the club shooting will come up again
Meanwhile, in March, Natania Reuben again told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas that Combs shot her, not Barrow.
“I literally saw them pull out their guns,” he said during an appearance on
“I had a clear point of view. I mean, for God’s sake, I got shot in the nose.”
Earlier this week, Natania’s mother said she “screamed to God” after her daughter told her about Combs’ arrest.
“I said, ‘Are you seriously kidding me?’ She said, ‘Yeah!'” he told The Daily Beast.
“I simply cried out to God: Thank you, merciful Father!”
A source told DailyMail.com that JLo’s mother was opposed to her daughter’s relationship with Combs from the beginning.
Combs has been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation for prostitution, according to a federal indictment unsealed in New York on Tuesday.
He was arrested Monday in Manhattan, six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
Shortly after Combs was jailed, a 2015 clip surfaced of Lopez being asked on Wendy Williams’ show if a romantic reunion with Diddy was possible.
Lopez laughed and shook her head, but when the cameras panned to the actress’s mother, Guadalupe Rodriguez, in the audience, she became furious and screamed “no!” while making a “cut it” gesture to her daughter.