By SELIM ALGAR, MATTHEW NESTEL and TODD VENEZIA
May 31, 2008
The mother of 50 Cent's son accused the rapper of trying to burn them to death after a suspicious fire ripped through their Long Island home early yesterday.
"He tried to kill me and his own child!" said Shaniqua Tompkins, 31, who narrowly escaped the 4 a.m. blaze that leveled the $2.4 million mansion in tony Dix Hills, where she lives with the rapper's 10-year-old son, Marquise, and four relatives.
PHOTO GALLERY: Fire At Fitty's
The blaze erupted after Tompkins and 50 Cent - whose real name is Curtis Jackson - got into a violent dispute Monday during a deposition in a $50 million lawsuit she is bringing against him.
"Who do I think did it? Curtis Jackson," Tompkins told The Post.
"He threatened me on Monday that he was going to have someone visit me. My kids are in the house. Who would try to kill your own kids? He's supposed to be all about being a gangster . . . That's not a gangster, that's a coward."
The rapper was in Louisiana filming a movie at the time of the fire.
"The fire was definitely suspicious because of the volume of the fire and how fast it spread," Dix Hills Fire Chief Larry Feld said.
But the lawyer for "Fitty," Brett Kimmel, blasted claims his client had the home torched.
"Any suggestion that Mr. Jackson had anything whatsoever to do with the fire at his home is outrageous and offensive," he said.
Tompkins said she was awake at the time the fire started because she was caring for Marquise, who was ill.
"Around 4 a.m., someone threw a [Molotov] cocktail in my house," she said. "I yelled, 'Let's get out of here! We have to go, there's a fire!' "
In addition to Tompkins and Marquise, Tompkins' daughter by another man, aunt, sister and young cousin were in the house at the time. They tried to get downstairs, but flames blocked their way.
They were forced to climb out a bedroom window onto a roof that was one story off the ground.
Off-duty Suffolk County cop Douglas Bose was passing by at the time. He ran up to the house and helped catch the children - one of whom was holding her pet guinea pig.
"They were saying, 'I could have died, I could have died!' " Bose recalled.
All six residents of the home were treated for smoke inhalation at Huntington Hospital.
The rapper's representatives released a statement that said, "Curtis Jackson expressed deep concern over this fire at his property."
Tompkins scoffed at the statement, and said that as of early yesterday afternoon, he had not called to check on his son.
"He hasn't even called his son who is completely traumatized after this to see if he's OK," she said. "What kind of man doesn't call his son?"
