Tyson Beckford revealed he once got into a physical altercation with Diddy’s entourage outside a Manhattan tattoo parlor that escalated into a full-blown street brawl with a shotgun being drawn.
During a recent interview on The Breakfast Club, the model and actor stated that the incident occurred before 9/11, after stylist Groovy Lew approached him with a woman and asked Beckford to pose for a photo. Beckford declined, saying he was in the middle of a conversation.
That’s when things took a turn.
“So then, he swung on me,” Beckford said. “And I got to beating the brakes off that man.”
According to Beckford, the fight broke out on Fifth Avenue near Bad Boy’s old headquarters. He said he suffered a head injury after slamming Groovy Lew into a wall.
“I got six stitches in the top of my head, because I ran him into the wall, and then my head also hit the wall,” Beckford said. “So, blood’s coming down my face.”
As the scuffle unfolded, Beckford said a police officer on a motorcycle stopped briefly but didn’t intervene.
“He knew damn well what was going on,” Beckford said. “But he looked like he was about to go turn in the bike and go home.”
After the officer left, Beckford said Groovy Lew fled around the corner and returned with Diddy and several others from Bad Boy Records. Beckford claimed he was left alone to face the group after his friend disappeared.
“My homeboy, he dipped on me,” Beckford said. “So they start coming at me, Puff started talking junk or whatever, and I’m backing up.”
Feeling threatened, Beckford said he went to his nearby Land Cruiser and retrieved a shotgun from the trunk.
“I said, look, I only got five [shells] in here. Puff, you gonna get it first, and big man, you gonna get it first. The rest of y’all, I’m just gonna shower you with it,” Beckford recalled.
The confrontation ended without further violence, but Beckford said Diddy later called his manager to complain.
“She said, ‘Yo, he’s Jamaican. Leave him alone,’” Beckford said.