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Rapper Cam'ron Shot in Alleged Carjacking Attempt

By Charreah Jackson
Black College Wire

Photo credit: http://umusicimages.ca "I got shot three times and my album comes out Nov. 22," said rapper Cameron Giles.

Rapper Cam'ron was shot in each arm in an alleged carjacking attempt while in Washington for weekend Howard University homecoming festivities, and was released from Howard University Hospital.

The former Roc-a-Fella records rapper encountered three unidentified men, who fired after he refused to give them his blue Lamborghini in the early hours of Sunday morning, Oct. 23, according to allhiphop.com.

"I got shot three times and my album comes out Nov. 22," Giles said as he left the hospital with an entourage of friends, fellow rappers and bodyguards, the Washington Post reported. "We love Howard."

"I didn't give the car up because I paid $250,000 for it and I'm not just giving up anything to anybody because they're waving a gun around," he told WRC-TV.

"I rolled with the punches. I mean the people who did it was real sloppy so I'm lucky to be here, I'm blessed," he said to the television station.

The rapper, born Cameron Giles, was wearing what a friend later described as $200,000 worth of diamonds and other jewelry, and had stopped at a red light after leaving the Annual Homecoming Blockfest at a D.C. nightclub, the Post said.

News of the shooting quickly filtered through campus.

A Howard student who is employed by the hospital and spoke on condition of anonymity said the rap star checked out around 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 after his blood was found to be running smoothly in both arms.

"You could tell he was in a lot of pain and he looked mad," the student said, adding that he went to the hospital late Saturday night, Oct. 22, to confirm Giles' hospital stay. "It was a lot of students there when I got there, but he was in his own room in Emergency and they put him under an alias."

The student hospital employee estimated he saw 10 to 15 students in the waiting room. Among those who attempted to spot Giles in the hospital was Amanda Porter, a junior business management major.

"A couple of [my friends and I] were talking about how much we liked Cam'ron and wondered if he was OK," she said. "We decided to go and try and see him. All they could do was say 'no.' We went on every floor trying to figure out where he was."

Porter said she first learned the news from alerts sent by allhiphop.com via email and text message.

University spokeswoman J.J. Pryor said the school could not provide information about Giles. "The university cannot comment because [Giles] was not listed as a patient," she said. Even if Giles were a registered patient, she said, the university could have not have released information on his condition. By law, such information cannot be released until a patient signs forms and waivers, she said.

Though students might not have been glad to hear of the shooting, many took advantage of Giles' subsequent hospital stay and took a chance at seeing the rapper.

"It was tight and I am definitely going to remember that experience," Porter said. "I am glad he is OK and if I ever meet him, I will probably tell him how I tried to visit him in the hospital."

Charreah Jackson, a student at Howard University, is managing editor of the Hilltop.

Posted Oct. 24, 2005