Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives are investigating a fatal car crash Thursday in Compton involving rap impresario Marion “Suge” Knight that killed a pedestrian, according to several sources familiar with the investigation and Knight’s attorney.
Witnesses told investigators that Knight, the onetime head of Death Row Records, was in the vehicle during the 2:55 p.m. incident on Rosecrans Avenue that left one man dead and another injured.
But authorities said they were still trying to sort out whether Knight was the driver or a passenger.
Knight’s attorney, James Blatt, confirmed his client was involved and said Knight was the driver of the truck, but called it a “tragic accident.” Blatt said Knight was making arrangements to surrender to authorities.
The identities of the victims were not immediately released. No arrests have been made. Authorities are investigating the incident as a homicide, and said a vehicle drove into a crowd on a sidewalk, hours after a video shoot in the area, and struck the two victims, who they did not identify. Knight has had a series of high-profile run-ins with the law dating back to the 1990s. He served four years in state prison after being sentenced in 1997 for violating probation stemming from a previous assault; he returned to jail in 2003 after assaulting a parking-lot attendant; and he pleaded guilty to drug and coercion charges in 2009. In August, he was shot several times during an early morning shooting at a West Hollywood nightclub.
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