There was no way out.
The haunted brother of a 20-year-old college student who died during a stampede at a Diddy-backed 1991 celebrity basketball game believes “karma” is catching up to the embattled mogul.
Jason Swain’s sibling, Dirk, then just 20, was one of nine people who were crushed to death after a crowd rushed to enter the oversold event inside a City College gymnasium.
“I believe in karma,” Swain, now 49, told The Post this week. “He never really owned up to anything, he never told us he was sorry, Whatever is going on with him now, I guess it was meant to be. But me, I lost everything that day. I lost my big brother. I lost my best friend.”
Diddy, 54, is currently under federal investigation over potential sex trafficking charges, and his houses in Miami and Los Angeles were raided last week by officers from Homeland Security looking to seize evidence. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing and has denied previous allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him.
Swain, who made a documentary on the disaster and has worked tirelessly to keep his sibling’s memory alive, said he blamed many people for the tragedy in addition to Diddy — including raucous attendees and police.
The event was an early promotion of the then little-known music industry figure, known at the time as Sean “Puffy” Combs, who would later flourish as the brash impresario behind Bad Boy Records.
The game featured a lineup of major hip hop names from the era, including Big Daddy Kane, Ed Lover, members of Run-DMC and Bell Biv DeVoe’s Michael Bivins. Mike Tyson and LL Cool J also made appearances.
But the Harlem calamity — which drew headlines around the world — would nearly end Diddy’s career before it began. Uptown Records, his label at the time, fired him due to public backlash over the stampede.
“It was his first bad decision,” Swain said of his handling of the event.
Former Diddy bodyguard Gene Deal was present at the game, and said his boss was distraught after his firing.
“We put him on suicide watch,” Deal said on Vlad TV. “I think he was on suicide watch because he thought he lost everything.”
No criminal charges were ever brought following the tragic event. A New York judge ruling on a civil case brought in relation to it would eventually pin partial blame for the tragedy on Combs, asserting that he didn’t properly organize the event and was negligent in failing to provide adequate security. The college was also found liable.
Victims’ families said at the time Combs resisted accountability and never properly apologized to them.
Swain’s late mother, Barbara Swain, told media outlets well after the incident she thirsted for Diddy to take some responsibility for the debacle which claimed her son.
“I want Sean to step up to the plate and say, ‘I made a mistake,” she told the Daily News in 1998. “I shouldn’t have done this.”
Bronx-born Charrisse Miles was just 21 years old when she purchased a ticket to the extravaganza and excitedly boarded a subway train to City College.
Recalling the incident for the first time in more than three-decades, Miles, who now lives in Georgia, said the horrors of that day still plague her.
“We were just chest to chest for hours,” she said of attendees who waiting for an opportunity to enter the gym. “We would move a few steps an hour.”
Miles said she was one of the lucky ones who eventually made it inside the swarmed venue as artists from Boyz II Men and Jodeci ran up and down the court.
“At one point there was this rush inside,” she said. “And that’s when you just saw bodies dropping. People were getting trampled. It was chaos.”
Miles said she saw Diddy pass by her as the tragedy unfolded — and that he seemed less concerned by the unfolding carnage than securing the day’s take and beating a hasty retreat.
“He walked right past me after there was this big rush into the gym, he was with Davante Adams from Jodeci,” she said. “And he didn’t concerned about what was going on. He just wanted to get his stuff and get out of there. I never got the sense of remorse or accountability. Just like, let me get my stuff and get out.”
Miles said her mind wandered back to those scenes as reports of Diddy’s legal troubles spiraled in recent weeks.
“Once that crowd rushed through, they didn’t give a crap about us,” she said. “I think his past deeds are coming back to him. I can’t say I’m surprised.”
Diddy later weathered the City College controversy and went on to super stardom after he established Bad Boy records.
He addressed the incident in 1998 during a court hearing on the case, well after he had established himself as an industry giant.
“City College is something I deal with every day of my life,” he said, according to the New York Times. “But the things that I deal with can in no way measure up to the pain that the families deal with. I just pray for the families and pray for the children who lost their lives every day.”
Diddy paid out several settlements related to the case, ending with a final payment in 2000 that closed the legal book on the City College stampede.
But Swain told The Post the events of that day – and memories of his brother — are indelibly branded into his memory.
“I miss him to this day,” the videographer said.