NEW YORK — The prosecution in Sean "Puffy" Combs bribery and weapons possession trial finally put a gun in the hip-hop king's hand Friday, only, it seemed, to have the defense knock it loose.

Tarnisha Smith told jurors she saw a weapon in Combs' hand as he ran from the scene of a Dec. 27, 1999 nightclub shooting, but a tough cross-examination exposed what appeared to be the witness' own doubts about her account.

"Are you certain as you sit here today that it was a gun?" asked defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman near the close of a lengthy grilling.

The 24-year-old nursing student sat silently for a moment and then, with many in the crowded gallery leaning forward in anticipation, answered, "It was a long time ago."

Combs, the CEO of Bad Boy Entertainment, faces 15 years in prison if convicted of brandishing a loaded weapon during a fight and then bribing chauffeur Wardel Fenderson to take the rap for him. Comb's co-defendant and rap protege, Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, is accused of shooting three bystanders and faces attempted murder charges. Bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones is charged with weapons and bribery charges as well.

Taking the stand at the end of the trial's first week, Smith was to have been one of the prosecution's strongest witnesses against Combs. Unlike others expected to testify that he had a gun inside a Manhattan disco on that night, Smith is not suing Combs in civil court, nor was she ever facing charges in the shooting. (By way of contrast, Fenderson, who claims he saw the music executive with a weapon before and after the shooting, has a $3 million suit pending against Combs and was himself charged with gun possession in the incident.)

Smith never recanted her account of seeing Combs with a gun, but she couched her testimony in phrases such as "what I thought I saw" and "from what I can remember" and admitted her statements to police and prosecutors were influenced by what fellow clubgoers told her.

A tiny woman with corn-row braids drawn into a long pony-tail, Smith was plainly upset about taking the stand, sighing as she answered and rushing through crucial sections of testimony, and from what she told jurors, it was obvious that prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos had his own concerns about her testifying.

According to Smith, the prosecutor summoned her to his office repeatedly to prepare for the trial.

"I'm always at his office," she said, adding that she had read her grand jury testimony eight times before taking the stand, five of them with Bogdanos by her side.

Under questioning from Bogdanos Friday, she recalled going to Club New York the day after Christmas with several girlfriends. As witnesses before her had, she described an argument erupting between a group of patrons and Combs' entourage, which included his girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, as well as Barrow and Jones. A man tossed a wad of cash in Combs' face, and a minute or two later, she said, Barrow pointed a gun in the air. She saw a spark, she said, and heard four or five gunshots.

Suddenly, Combs was rushing by her with a "black thing" in his hand.

"What did you believe it to be," Bogdanos asked.

"A gun," she replied.

On cross-examination, however, Smith said she had only seen Combs for an "instant" and that he had been running "fast" through a crowd at the time. Brafman pressed her repeatedly about whether she could discern a black gun in a black hand in a dark club. She admitted she had only seen a portion of Combs hand, and never saw a trigger or a handle.

By the end of Brafman's cross, Smith was referring to the gun as "whatever I saw."

She also acknowledged that she and her girlfriends had discussed the shooting extensively prior to talking to police or appearing before the grand jury. The statements she gave, she said, were "a combination of what I saw and speaking with my friends."

The lawyer also highlighted her testimony that Combs and Lopez fled the club together. She testified that she was positive of this, but other state witnesses have said Combs left Lopez inside as he made a getaway.

But as Brafman repeatedly asked her the crucial question of whether she was sure Combs had a gun, Smith stuck to her testimony — but just barely.

"Honestly, that's what I thought I saw—it was a long time ago," she said.

When he pushed further, she sighed and in words that seemed carefully chosen said, "If that's what I said in the grand jury, and I change it, I'd perjure myself."

Testimony resumes Monday.