Newspaper apologises for Tupac claim

Rex Features

The Los Angeles Times has issued an apology for a story linking Sean 'Diddy' Combs to the 1994 shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur.

The move followed a claim by website The Smoking Gun that the FBI documents quoted by the newspaper were forged by a prisoner.

The article alleged that Combs was aware of the planned assault after linking it to two of his former associates.

The hip-hop mogul denied any involvement, calling the claims "beyond ridiculous and ... completely false".

After hearing the website's suspicions, the newspaper launched an investigation and both Philips and deputy managing editor Marc Duvoisin subsequently apologised.

Writer Chuck Philips said he had been "duped" by the forgeries, adding: "In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I failed to do my job. I'm sorry."

An internal review of the documents and reporting practices used in the article is now underway.

Editor Russ Stanton said: "We published this story with the sincere belief that the documents were genuine, but our good intentions are beside the point. The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used."

Shakur was shot five times, robbed and left for dead after entering the lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan on November 30, 1994. The incident launched a feud between East and West Coast rappers which culminated in the murders of Shakur in 1996 and Notorious BIG in 1997.