#Tuestimony
Friends and I escaped harm after being caught in the crossfire of a shootout between Civilians-and-Civilians AND Civilians-and-Police.
It was early 2002. Me and a couple buddies. We went to a party at the Civic Center in Petersburg, VA around 1030/11pm. <SIDEBAR: I realize I could end the story here after saying we were in Petersburg, but I’m gonna give the rest of the details anyhow. Haha.> Civic Center was a night club. On this particular night, Ja-Rule was scheduled to perform. Until he got there… everyone in the club was dancing, rocking out, having a jolly ol’ time. Then, a lil after midnight… Ja-Rule finally gets there and comes on stage and starts rapping/singing. And that’s when things got crazy!
Somewhere in the middle of Ja-Rule’s performance, someone from the audience threw a tomato at him. <SIDEBAR: I know how that sounds. But I’m not joking. Somebody launched a tomato toward Ja-Rule. Not a slice of tomato. Not a dice of tomato. Not a chop of tomato. Not a round, red object that looked like a tomato. Not a plastic tomato. They tossed a full, whole, complete, this-came-from-the-ground-and-made-it-to-the-produce-section-at-Food-Lion tomato.> Okay. So… I have no idea where the tomato came from, but I was rolling!! That was easiest the best part of my eve that night. Cuz where in the world do you find a tomato in the club!! Hahaha. Like… did homie come in with the tomato in his pocket? Why was a big round object not discovered during the security pat-down upon entering the club? *But then again, they didn’t really check IDs so it wasn’t surprising.* The only thing that could make sense, in hindsight, was that it was someone from the club’s kitchen staff who threw it.
Anyways, Ja-Rule didn’t like having to dodge a flying fruit, so after he ducked it, he stopped performing and yelled at the crowd, demanding that someone point out the person who threw it. But either people didn’t know or they remained quiet. He got fed up and started angrily splashing water (from water bottles on stage) on the audience. Someone then threw a water bottle at him… this time hitting him… and his security team grabbed him and took him back stage.
Meanwhile, a bunch of people started fighting in the club. Club Security managed to handle that and get all of those people outside. But then the venue Owner/Manager shut down the club for the rest of the night and said that everybody had to go. By the time my friends and I walked outside, we still saw different groups of people fighting and police officers trying to get control of things. There were maybe like 9 police cars outside and a bunch of officers running to different groups of fighters. <SIDEBAR: Ja-Rule’s team apparently was able to duck out and take off before all of this happened outside.> When we got down the front steps of the club… POW POW POW, BLAU, BLAU, POP POP POP, BOOM BOOM… gunshots! So, the scene was: A couple hundred people leaving the front door of a club, scattered in the parking lot and streets, with people fighting each other and cops, and then somebody had to start shooting! Mannnn, I was terrified!!
My friends and I hid under/behind a couple trucks/SUVs while most of everyone else scrambling and ran for dear life. Soon after, the gunshots seemed to have stopped. *It was maybe a total of 30 seconds from the moment we heard the first gunshot to the moment we stopped hearing gunshots.* We heard a bunch of other cop sirens coming. We got up from under/behind the vehicles and ran to our car. We didn’t linger to see who got hurt or who got arrested and all that. All I know… is that we made it out just fine. And I give God all the Praise for that. #WontHeDoIt!
**STORY EXTRAS: It boggles my mind that something like that happened at a Ja-Rule club concert. He had just dropped “Pain Is Love”. To me… neither Ja-Rule nor his music seemed to inspire random street beef. A few months after the Ja-Rule debacle… Three 6 Mafia came to Civic Center. I was there for that also. And I just knew something was gonna happen again! The first song the Three 6 Mafia performed was “Put Ya Signs”… which starts off with the lyrics “Put ya signs in his face, gang signs in his face. Make them dudes fight. Make them girls fight.” And then every other song was all about tearing up the club and reppin your set/gang and all those types of songs. However… NOBODY got to fighting inside or outside the club. It was one of the most fun times I’ve had at a club. I mean… I don’t even remember anyone being mad at the bartender for taking too long with drinks. I was like… how in the world was Three 6 Mafia’s event so peaceful but cats fought and shot at a Ja-Rule event. #HowSway!!??