NEW YORK -- Rap music singer '2 Pac' Shakur was in custody Friday on charges he participated in the gang rape of a woman, holding her down while one of three friends sexually attacked her in his Parker Meridien Hotel suite.
Sgt. Frances Haimeck, a police spokeswoman, said the woman notified security at the luxury Midtown hotel and the 22-year-old rapper, also known as Tupac Shakur, was arrested with Charles Fuller, 23 of Richmond Calif., and Ricardo Brown, 30 of North Miami, Fla.
A fourth suspect was not identified and was not apprehended.
The sergeant said the woman was in Shakur's bedroom about 11:15 p.m. Thursday when his three friends who had been in the suite entered the bedroom.
The rapper allegedly restrained the woman while the unidentified man raped her, he said.
Fuller and Brown physically restrained the woman, identified as 20 years old, when she tried to leave but she eventually was allowed out.
The three were charged with forcible sodomy and unlawful imprisonment and held at the Midtown North police precinct.
Sunny John, a disc jockey at radio station WBLS-FM who plays the singer's records, said the popular hip hop artist gained recognition with the song 'I Get Around,' recorded with the Digital Underground, had appeared in the movie 'Juice,' and was being filmed in a new movie, 'Above The Rim,' in New York.
'He's had a lot of things happen lately,' Sunny John said. 'When I met him he seemed very nice, and I'm really sorry that he seems to be in a self-destructive mode.'
