Break in Jam Master Jay Case?

Authorities might be one step closer to solving the murder of Jam Master Jay.

Police are probing whether Karl Darren Jordan, the suspect in the shooting of the Run-D.M.C. deejay's nephew in May, might also be same masked gunman who shot and killed Jay, whose real name is Jason Mizell, last October in his Queens recording studio, the New York Daily News reports.

Jordan, a 20-year-old aspiring rapper who goes by the handle Little Dee, was taken into custody earlier this month for the attempted murder of Rodney Jones, an 18-year-old hip-hopster dubbed Boe Skagz, who raps with the group Rusty Waters and also happens to be kin to Jay.

Jones allegedly fingered Jordan as the triggerman who on May 14 fired five rounds at Jones, injuring him once in the leg. The two reportedly had been engaged in a long-simmering feud.

According to the Daily News, police are now trying to link Jones' shooting to Mizell's October 30 murder based on statements taken from a jailhouse informant whose credibility may be in doubt, but who says Jordan was behind both shootings.

Ronald Tinard Washington, a longtime pal of Jam Master Jay who pleaded guilty this week to armed robbery in Nassau County, New York, told both the Daily News and detectives that he witnessed Jordan and Jordan's father, Darren, aka Big Dee, enter Mizell's studio just minutes before gunfire erupted that left the rap pioneer dead. Following the shots, Washington says he also saw Little Dee running out the back door.

Police have confirmed that Karl Jordan is a suspect.

As for what he was doing there at the time of the murder, Washington said he was on his way to see Jay, alleging the turntable whiz had given him $200 and sent him to buy bullets for a .45 caliber gun, which he said Jay was carrying at the time of his death.

"That was the first time I ever saw Jay with a gun," Washington said. "He was scared. He didn't say it, but I know Jay."

Authorities could not confirm whether a .45 caliber weapon was discovered at the crime scene, but it's been reported that investigators found two .45 caliber casings in the lounge where Jay was gunned down.

But Washington himself is something of a question mark, since investigators think he fits the profile of Jay's killer more than Jordan's 300-pound father. The Daily News says police theorize he might have been a lookout for whomever did the shooting.

A police source quoted in Long Island's Newsday said that Washington also offered another theory as to why the 37-year-old deejay was killed. He claimed Jay had was caught up in a drug-selling operation that went bad.

Meanwhile, Jordan's father said Little Dee shot Jones because he was upset over some not-so-nice lyrics Jones wrote about him. But the elder Jordan said his son had nothing to do with Mizell's slaying.

"The police are telling my son he's in a lot of trouble, and people are saying he had something to do with the murder of Jam Master Jay," Darren Jordan told the Daily News. "My son ain't scared, but he's not comfortable. He knows he didn't do it.

"My son wouldn't be involved with it, because that would be like my son killing my brother. He would have to deal with me."

The elder Jordan was a close friend and confidante of Jay's for many years, having originally been tapped by the Run-D.M.C. member to manage the trio's career, before going to work for Island Def Jam Records as a rap promoter. When he lost that job, Jay rehired him. The elder Jordan also acted as godfather to one of Mizell's three sons and was a pallbearer at the musician's funeral.

"We were very, very close. We were so close, if one of us needed a liver or a kidney we could swap out," Darren Jordan told the Daily News. "I know the cops think it's my son. I don't believe it."