Cam'ron Cohort Wounded In New York Shoot Out

04/28/2003 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
LAUNCH Radio Networks

(4/28/03, 4 p.m. ET) -- Rapper Freakey Zekey (Ezekiel Jiles) of the Diplomats was in stable condition at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City after suffering gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, in a shoot out that stemmed from a fender bender early Friday (April 25). The rapper's friend, Eric Mangrum, 28, of Hempstead, Long Island, was killed during the confrontation.

According to police, Freakey Zekey, Mangrum, and two other men riding in a white Jeep Cherokee were involved in a collision with four men and a women riding in a silver sedan outside of the popular Chelsea nightclub Cheetah at approximately 3:00 a.m.

Lieutenant Stephen Camardese described the accident that led to the gunplay to the New York Post as "Just a spur-of-the-moment occurrence. Then they decided to settle it."

An argument followed which led to pushing and shoving and eventually gunplay. Police officers recovered a 9mm handgun in a garbage container, as well as several 40-caliber castings. According to a police estimate, approximately two dozen shots were fired.

Police are still looking for the silver sedan and have made no arrests.

Freakey Zekey is a member of the Diplomats which also includes Cam'ron, Jim Jones, and Juelz Santana. The group's debut set, Diplomatic Immunity, is presently Number 47 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The set has sold more than 206,000 copies in the four weeks since its release.

Zekey also doubles as the president of Diplomat Records and last month he shared his long-term goals for the label. "Diplomat Records, we got our record label through Roc-A-Fella," Zekey said. "It's the same difference as Roc-A-Fella through Def Jam so we're trying to build our own identity and we want people to feel what we're trying to do."

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