Beanie Sigel released from hospital

The Philadelphia rapper Beanie Sigel left an Atlantic City hospital last weekend after spending nearly a month recovering from a gunshot wound, police said Tuesday.

Sigel gave investigators a statement before leaving AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.

"I'm not going to characterize whether he was cooperative or uncooperative," Pleasantville Police Capt. Sean Riggin said Tuesday. Asked if the statement was helpful, he said, "Yes, sure. Every statement's helpful."

Sigel was shot Dec. 5 at his brother-in-law's Pleasantville home, where he had been staying after being released from a federal prison for tax evasion.

He was breathing with the aid of a tube and ventilator at the hospital and could not talk to investigators for the first time until Christmas Eve.

Police initially said Sigel was not an intended target, but later backed off that. A bullet struck the rapper in the abdomen and exited his back. Police found him in the finished basement of the house in the 800 block of Spruce Avenue.

Several of Sigel's family members are considered people of interest in the case. Among them are Sigel's sister-in-law Kamilah Salahuddin, 33, whose car police chased after the shooting. It's unknown who was driving at the time. Investigators have been unable to locate Salahuddin.

A passenger, Ricky Childress, 31, jumped out of the car during the chase and was later interviewed, police said. Sigel's brother-in-law Umar Salahuddin, 22, was found with scrapes and bruises at the home where the gunshots rang out, but was uncooperative, police said.

No arrests have been made.

This is not the first time Sigel has survived a shooting. In 2006, he was shot when a group of men tried to rob him in Philadelphia. Upon leaving a hospital after that incident, he told reporters, "I got shot. I'm cool."