Here’s what really happened at Diddy’s City College basketball event, when nine people died

The new Netflix documentary Sean Combs: The Reckoning briefly mentions Sean “Diddy” Combs’s City College basketball event, at which nine people died. Here’s a detailed rundown of what we actually know about the basketball event, and how Diddy was involved.

Diddy was an organiser of the basketball game at City College

Diddy and the musician Heavy D (real name Dwight Meyers) set up “the first annual Heavy D and Puff Daddy Celebrity Charity basketball game”. Each rapper planned to captain a team of celebrities, including Mike Tyson and LL Cool J. The event was arranged to happen in a gymnasium at the City College of New York on Saturday 28th December 1991.

A flyer for the basketball event
(Image via Netflix)

How did the City College stampede happen?

The gymnasium had a legal capacity of 2,730 people. However, far more tickets were sold. The game was scheduled to being at 6pm, but didn’t. At 7pm, hundreds of people in the street started pushing to get inside the venue. A glass door smashed, then people rushed into the lobby.

An emergency worker called Sy Collins told New York Newsday: “The door opens and there were bodies on the floor and people were just running over them… it was a plane crash without a plane. there was bodies all over, people calling for help.”

An announcement was made that the game would not be going ahead as people had died. The crowds then rushed to leave.

A diagram of the lobby
(Image via Netflix)

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Eight people from ages 16 to 28 died from asphyxiation in the stairwell leading to the gym. A ninth person, 20-year-old Dawn MacCaine, later died from her injuries. 29 people were injured, including five emergency service workers.

What did the police say about Diddy after the City College Stampede?

In the aftermath of the disaster, Diddy claimed no responsibility.

Families of the victims received about $3.8 million in settlements. Diddy paid approximately $750,000 of this.

On 31st December 1998, Judge Louis C. Benza of the Court of Claims ruled that Diddy and Heavy D were 50 per cent responsible for the injuries and deaths. He declared that New York State and the operator of the gymnasium were also responsible.

The gymnasium
(Image via Netflix)

The judge wrote: “By closing the only open door giving access to the gym, Combs’ forces, who were fully aware of the crowd uncontrollably pouring down the stairwell, created something akin to a ‘dike,’ forcing the people together like ‘sardines,’ squashing out life’s breath from young bodies.”

Diddy testified that he was also stuck in the stampede, but a police officer said he was in the gym. The judge wrote that this “places a strain on the credibility of Combs’ testimony that he was caught up in the melee and attempted to help the people who were trapped in the stairwell.”

In response to this ruling, Diddy stated: “There is not a day that passes that I do not regret the fact that I was a promoter of this tragic event. … I have lived with the horror of that night for the last seven years.”

His lawyer argued Diddy had “no opportunity to defend himself, to present witnesses, or even to cross-examine witnesses who testified against him.”

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Featured image of the flyer via Netflix. Featured image of P Diddy by Rob Latour/Shutterstock.