Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was considered a person-of-interest Thursday in a fatal hit-and-run crash outside a restaurant in Compton, according to authorities.
It happened just before 3 p.m. outside Tam’s Burgers at Rosecrans and Central avenues (map).
Two men were standing in the parking lot when a third man in a red pickup drove up and began arguing with them, said Lt. John Corina with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
The man in the truck suddenly accelerated, according to Corina.
“It looks like he drove backward and struck the victims and then went forward and struck them again as he left,” Corina said. “It looked like it was an intentional act and would be treated as a homicide.”
Corina said Knight had been involved in another altercation about 20 minutes earlier.
Witnesses told KTLA they saw Knight working on a video production in Compton where TMZ reported the Death Row Records founder got into a fight with crew members and then ran over a bystander.
Knight was also seen in a red pickup in the same neighborhood around the same time as the crash, witnesses reported.
“Yes, it would all suggest that he (Knight) was the person driving that truck,” Corina said.
The truck was recovered several hours later in a parking lot in Westwood.
The Sheriff’s Department said they were in contact with Knight’s attorney who was said to be trying to get his client to surrender.
Video posted to Instagram by witnesses showed an ambulance and fire engine on scene.
Two people were transported to a hospital where an adult male died, the Sheriff’s Department’s Compton Station said in a news release.
A friend at the scene identified the victim as 55-year-old Terry Carter. His silver Dodge Magnum was still in the parking lot Thursday night.
The second victim, actor Cle “Bone” Sloan, was recovering from his injuries.
In 1991, Knight founded the successful Death Row Records, signing artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur.
Knight was driving the car in which Shakur was a passenger when the rapper was shot to death in Las Vegas in 1996.
In August, Knight and two other people were shot while inside a celebrity-filled Sunset Strip party hosted by singer Chris Brown on the eve of the MTV Video Music Awards.
(CNN contributed to this story)
More Videos:
