50 Cent's Home Destroyed By Fire

House Was At Center Of Legal Dispute With Rapper's Ex-Girlfriend

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NEW YORK May 30, 2008

(AP)  A sprawling Long Island mansion owned by hip-hop superstar 50 Cent that has been at the center of a bitter dispute between the rapper and his ex-girlfriend was destroyed by a suspicious fire early Friday.

Six people inside the Dix Hills home were taken to a hospital after suffering smoke inhalation and later released. A firefighter also suffered a minor eye injury, officials said.

50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, does not live in the home and was not there at the time.

"Informed this morning while filming a new motion picture on location in Louisiana, Curtis Jackson expressed deep concern over this fire at his property," a representative for 50 Cent said in a statement. "He is extremely thankful that everyone including his son, Marquise, escaped the burning house safely. He is confident that authorities will be conducting a thorough investigation of the incident and is eager to review their findings."

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The home was essentially burned to the ground, with charred embers and wreckage littering the lot where the luxurious mansion once stood in the tree-lined neighborhood in Dix Hills.

Investigators from the Suffolk County arson squad were called to the scene after Dix Hills Fire Chief Larry Feld deemed the blaze suspicious. The fire was reported at 4:59 a.m. and was extinguished about 45 minutes later, Feld said. The arson squad had finished its work at the scene six hours after the blaze.

He referred the case to the arson squad "because of the intensity of the fire, and also being that who belongs to the house."

Police said that the victims included the rapper's former girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, and two of her children, including a son fathered by 50 Cent named Marquise. The other three adults in the home were not immediately identified.

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A passing off-duty police officer helped rescue the six people off an elevated deck in the home's backyard, Feld said.

The home has been the subject of an intense feud between 50 Cent and Tompkins.

Tompkins filed a lawsuit against 50 Cent earlier this year, claiming he had promised her a house more than a decade ago, but that since their breakup he now wants to evict her and their 10-year-old son from the home.

Tompkins' lawyer, Paul Catsandonis, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that the dispute over the house had become "extremely, extremely contentious" in recent days. Although he declined to be specific, he said there was an "extremely dangerous incident" on Monday in his Manhattan office while taking a deposition for the lawsuit.

The dispute was "involving the parties in question," he said.

He said the case was back on the calendar in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on June 10.

Catsandonis said the 32-year-old rapper paid about $2.4 million for the house last year, one of the largest in the Long Island neighborhood of Dix Hills. He said 50 Cent, who grew up surrounded by violence and was once shot outside his grandmother's Queens home in 2000, had told the 32-year-old Tompkins that he wanted her and their son to live in a safe and secure place.

He also contended that the rapper signed an agreement that would give Tompkins half of all the rapper's earnings as a hip-hop superstar. "Everything that's his is hers, everything that's hers is his. He memorialized in an e-mail that he intended to give her the house."

The rapper has been nominated for 13 Grammys, including nods for the song "In da Club" and the album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'." In 2005, he starred with Terrence Howard in a semi-autobiographical movie based on that album.

By Frank Eltman
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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