Remy Ma Pleads Not Guilty To Shooting

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Grammy-nominated rap MC Remy Ma, 26, formerly of Fat Joe’s Terror Squad, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon during her arraignment on Sunday related to an incident near Lower Manhattan, New York’s Pizza Bar on Saturday. Bail was set at $250,000 and she was released from Riker’s Island prison when her manager offered his home for collateral.  She is due to return to court on August 14.

Reports claim that Ma had a fight with 23-year-old Makeda Barnes-Joseph, whom she had been friends with for many years, and shot her twice in the midsection.  Barnes-Joseph was hospitalized in stable condition at St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan on Sunday.

The New York Daily News says that Ma asked Barnes-Joseph to briefly hold her purse while the women were celebrating a friend’s birthday at Pizza Bar, and as they were leaving around 3:40 a.m., Ma noticed money missing from her purse and jumped into Barnes-Joseph’s vehicle and dumped the other woman’s purse looking for the missing money, then shot her when Barnes-Joseph protested.  She then jumped back into her Cadillac Escalade but crashed into a parked car just a few blocks away and took a cab.  She later turned herself into police.

Rapper Big Pun discovered Ma in the late 1990s and she went on to become a member of Fat Joe’s Terror Squad and performed on the single “Lean Back” which was nominated for a Grammy.  She released her first solo album last year entitled “There’s Something About Remy.”