Rap impresario Mr Combs, 31, also known as Puff Daddy, is charged with gun possession and bribery following the December 1999 shooting at a New York nightclub in which three people were injured.

He is accused alongside prot�g� Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, 21, who is charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting three people, while bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones is also charged with gun possession and bribery.

All three deny the charges.

Police Officer William Meyer told the Manhattan courtroom he was doing the paper work on the arrest of Mr Combs and others who had been in the sports utility vehicle when driver Wardell Fenderson told him he had something to say.

"I asked him what was going on, and he said the gun was his," Mr Meyer said.

But as Mr Fenderson was about to be fingerprinted, he withdrew his claim, the officer said.

"He told me that the gun was not his and he was not going to take the rap for anybody else."