NEW YORK —Sean "Puffy" Combs had a gun in his waistband before a nightclub shooting and offered his driver $50,000 and a diamond-encrusted pinkie ring to take the rap, the chauffeur testified Thursday.

Star prosecution witness Wardel Fenderson held a packed Manhattan courtroom rapt as he described a panicked Combs desperately trying to hide a gun in secret compartments in his custom SUV and then brazenly bribing his employee as police officers stood just a few feet away.

Wardel Fenderson

"Mr. Combs then turned to me and he whispered in a hushed voice. His exact words were, 'I will give you $50,000 to say the gun was yours,'" Fenderson said. "He said, 'I'm Puff Daddy, I can't take this gun.'"

Combs, the 31-year-old head of Bad Boy Entertainment, glared at the driver throughout his testimony. The driver's account was the most devastating yet against the music executive, who faces 15 years in prison if convicted of gun possession and bribery.

Late Thursday afternoon, Combs' defense began what is sure to be a long cross-examination of Fenderson. But the driver couldn't be shaken from his story and, at times, seemed to confound normally unflappable defense attorney Benjamin Brafman.

"Don't badger the witness," Fenderson scolded Brafman at one point, briefly flustering the lawyer.

With little success in the courtroom, Combs' camp appealed to the media outside. The rap mogul's mother, Janice, who has been a fixture in the court since jury selection but rarely speaks publicly, stepped before cameras in front of the courthouse and said with a quivering lip, "My son is innocent. There are two sides to every story. You've only heard one."

The story jurors heard was very damning. Fenderson, a weekend chauffeur, said he was waiting in a Lincoln Navigator outside Combs' recording studio on Dec. 27, 1999, when his boss climbed in alone and began fiddling with a gun.

"I was shocked because I saw Mr. Combs holding in his hand a black handgun," Fenderson said. "I thought, what in God's name is he doing holding a gun?"

The 42-year-old recalled thinking that, with all of his security guards, Combs didn't need a weapon. He testified that he made eye contact with Combs but said nothing.

"That's my employer. It's not my job to question him," he said.

Combs left the vehicle and walked with his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez around the corner to Club New York. Fenderson meanwhile parked the Navigator outside. Just before 3 a.m., he said, one of Combs' guards called and said his entourage was ready to leave.

As he pulled the car in front of the club, "people started to run out of the club and I heard them yelling, 'Shooting, shooting, there's a shooting inside.'"

Seconds later, he said, Combs, Lopez and bodyguard Anthony "Wolf" Jones jumped into the SUV.

Lopez, he testified, shouted that Combs' protege Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, who had been in the club's VIP area with them and is being tried for attempted murder, had "busted off in the air." Fenderson said he took that to mean Barrow had fired a gun.

Fenderson said that Combs and Jones were screaming at him, "Let's go! Get out of here." He complied, driving around a police blockade.

"I navigated the Navigator," he quipped.

As he sped off with a police cruiser in pursuit, Combs and Jones were shouting questions about secret compartments in the vehicle, he said. In a high-pitched, terrified voice, Fenderson mimicked Combs yelling, "Yo, dog, you know how to open the stash?"

Previous witnesses testified that the SUV has two hiding spots, but Fenderson said he was unaware of them and certainly did not know the complicated process required to open them. He said that both Jones and Combs pressed him repeatedly about the compartments, and when Jones leaned over to try to open one himself, he spotted a gun stuck in Jones' waistband.

"It was like something out of a movie, pure chaos, panic, a frenzied situation," he said.

The prosecution claims Combs tossed a gun from the car during the chase, and although Fenderson said he did not see a gun leave the car, he did notice Combs' window down at one point.

Fenderson said he continued driving, even though he wanted to pull over for police, because Jones and Combs kept telling him, "Don't stop. Don't pull over. Keep going."

The bespectacled father of three said he was especially frightened of Jones, a hulking man who had struck him once before during a disagreement. Fenderson, a slight man who described himself as "155 pounds dripping wet in combat boots just getting out of a shower," said he felt he had no choice but to comply with Jones and Combs.

Finally, he testified, when a cruiser cut them off, he pulled over, telling Combs and Jones, "The chase is over, guys. The chase is over."

All four inhabitants of the SUV were taken to the police station after officers found a gun under Jones' seat. Fenderson said he was nearly "catatonic" as he was led into the police station and could barely react when Combs and Jones began asking him to "cop to the gun."

"I went from being in shock to being in double shock," Fenderson said, recounting Combs' offer of $50,000. He said Jones advised him, "Go ahead and take the money, you know Puffy's good for it."

He said the two men kept up the pressure in a holding cell with Jones saying that, if he didn't have a prior felony conviction, he would "take the gun for Puffy."

Fenderson agreed to take the bribe and with Combs and Jones standing beside him told two officers that the weapon was his. But hours later, he said, "reality set in." When he thought about his family and having a felony record, $50,000 no longer seemed worth it.

"At that point, I was like, 'I can't take this gun,'" he said. He told an officer he wanted to recant, but said nothing to Combs or Jones.

Combs had arranged bail and a lawyer for Fenderson, and the chauffeur testified that, in the days after his release from jail, Combs and his associates peppered him with telephone calls. Eventually, he said, he told Jones and Combs that he had no intention of taking the rap.

Fenderson said he met with Combs at his Park Avenue apartment to make it clear that he was backing out of the deal. Combs, however, continued to call, leaving a voice mail message that prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos played for the jury. In the message, Combs says he wants to make Fenderson and his family "comfortable," which the driver said he understood to mean Combs was willing to increase the amount of the bribe.

Brafman, however, suggested Combs was expressing concern about Fenderson's being fired because of the publicity accompanying his arrest. That is one of several lines of attack the defense will likely use in its cross-examination of Fenderson Friday. In addition, Combs' lawyers are expected to highlight a $3 million civil suit Fenderson filed against Combs and the deal Fenderson struck with prosecutors to have his charges dropped.