Rapper Beanie Sigel hospitalized after shooting
PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. - The investigation into the Friday morning shooting of the rapper Beanie Sigel in Atlantic County was being hampered by a lack of cooperation from potential witnesses and relatives, police said.
PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. - The investigation into the Friday morning shooting of the rapper Beanie Sigel in Atlantic County was being hampered by a lack of cooperation from potential witnesses and relatives, police said.
A man who was wounded in the attack, which took place outside his home, was also uncooperative, said Capt. Sean Riggin of the Pleasantville police.
Even Sigel's condition was unclear Friday evening, as AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center said his family had asked the hospital not to release information. Sigel, whose birth name is Dwight Grant, was taken to that hospital's trauma unit with a life-threatening injury, Pleasantville Police Chief Jose Ruiz said earlier in the day.
Police received multiple 911 calls of gunfire in the 800 block of Spruce Avenue before 10 a.m. Officers found Sigel, 40, in a house there. A bullet had hit him in the abdomen and exited through his back, Ruiz said.
Bullet casings and ammunition outside the house suggested the shooting took place there, police said.
Investigators seized two cars Friday. One, which had bullet holes, was recovered shortly after the shooting. There had been no arrests as of Friday night.
Officers waited outside the taped-off house Friday afternoon as police sought to obtain a search warrant.
Family members waiting outside said they had no comment.
Sigel's attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr., told the Associated Press that his client was not the intended target of the shooting.
The other man wounded in the shooting, Umar B. Salahuddin, 22, lived in the house. Salahuddin was arrested this year and charged with drug possession, Riggin said.
Riggin said he did not know whether Salahuddin was wounded by gunfire or during a scuffle that had apparently broken out. Salahuddin did not cooperate with police and declined medical treatment, Riggin said.
Officers were waiting for Sigel to be able to talk, Ruiz said.
"He hasn't offered anything," Ruiz said, "and we're waiting for Mr. Sigel to be able to speak to us."
At one point, Sigel was intubated and unable to talk; Riggin said Friday evening police had not interviewed him and did not expect to in the near future.
The relationship between Sigel and Salahuddin was unclear.
Sigel grew up in South Philadelphia, taking his stage name from Sigel Street.
He is known for albums including The Truth, his debut in 2000, and This Time, which he released in 2012.
He served time for a weapons charge in 2005 and in 2008 for violating parole. In 2012, he was sent to federal prison in Pennsylvania for tax evasion.
In August, he was moved from the prison to a halfway house in the Philadelphia area. In September, he was assigned to home confinement.
That was scheduled to end Saturday, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
A spokesman there declined to say where Sigel had been on house arrest.