Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Bodyguard Thought Diddy Was Going to Die on the Night Biggie Was Murdered

In 1997, Sean “Diddy” Combs and The Notorious B.I.G. — or Biggie — left a party in separate cars. Diddy was nearby, therefore, when another car began firing into Biggie’s vehicle. That night, Diddy’s bodyguard, Gene Deal, said he worried something was going to happen to Diddy instead.

Diddy’s bodyguard was worried for Diddy’s safety on the night Biggie was murdered

In 1997, Biggie and Diddy attended an after party together . Deal was also present, though he said Diddy had initially offered him the night off, but he felt he should be there. Deal worried something was going to happen to Diddy.

“I saw this kid lose his life — this kid died while I was pulling him out of the car,” he told Vibe Magazine . “I wouldn’t put nobody in my shoes ’cause I don’t feel like they could handle it. If I didn’t have God in my life, if I didn’t have people praying for me, I don’t know if I could have handled it. Before we left Andre Harrell’s house, Puff told me I didn’t have to go. Now, I went because I knew that somebody was going to die that night, somebody was going to get shot. I did everything in my power to stop it from being Puff, and it wasn’t Puff.”

In his eyes, Biggie’s bodyguards should have done more to protect the rapper. For this reason, Deal found his death particularly painful.

“The people that was bodyguarding Big didn’t do everything in their power to stop it from being Big — and that hurts me, even though it wasn’t my principle,” he said. “Every time you hear his music, every time you see one of these murals on the wall, now they got statues… it’s gon’ hurt until God takes me away from here.”

Diddy spoke about how he felt in the aftermath to Biggie’s death

Diddy rushed to the hospital with Biggie. On the drive there, he said he realized on some level that Biggie was dead, but it still came as a terrible blow when doctors broke the news to him.

“Then doctors come and tell us the news,” he told Rolling Stone in 1997, adding, “I was on my knees praying the whole time. I was just stuck. I couldn’t understand. It was moving so fast. I just could not believe it was real.”

Afterward, he had to call Biggie’s mother to tell her.

“It gets worse, though. I had Damien call Biggie’s mother,” he said. “Then in the middle of telling her, Damien breaks down. So I had to tell her. I had to calm her down, try to get somebody over to the house.”

He said that once he got back to the hotel, the truth of Biggie’s death began to sink in through the shock.

He left Los Angeles after the murder

While Biggie’s murder still remains unsolved, Diddy said the people around him worried he could be the killer’s next target . They encouraged him to get out of Los Angeles.

“And then I woke up, and everybody was panicking, telling me to get out of L.A. And I just could not move,” he said. “I was stuck.”

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He said he felt miserable while leaving the city.

“So then I’m about to get on a plane. And as I’m seeing the plane pull up, that’s when I just break down,” he said. “I’m about to leave L.A. without my man, you know what I’m saying? He’s getting left here — he’s at the morgue, just laying there. That s*** was just so f***ed up to me. I’m getting on a plane. My man is in a morgue, all f***ed up. I just wanted him to be with me, sitting right there with me, going back to New York.”