Troubled timeline
A look at Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight’s troubles over the past 20 years: * 1996: Knight was sent to prison for nearly five years for badly beating a rival with rapper Tupac Shakur at a Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel. The beating came shortly before Shakur suffered fatal gunshot wounds. * 2002: Knight was jailed for violating his probation by associating with gang members in Los Angeles. * 2003: He went back to jail on a parole violation after punching a parking lot attendant outside a Hollywood nightclub. * 2005: Knight was shot in the leg during an MTV Video Music Awards pre-party in Miami. No arrests were made. * 2006: Death Row Records filed for bankruptcy, and a Los Angeles judge ordered a trustee to take it over because of gross mismanagement. * 2009: Knight was hospitalized for treatment of facial injuries following a fight at a hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona. * 2013: The rap music figure was arrested on an outstanding warrant and later released after being pulled over for a traffic violation in Los Angeles. * 2014: Ahead of the MTV Video Music Awards, Knight was shot during an altercation at a Hollywood nightclub at a party not affiliated with the cable network.
LOS ANGELES — Marion “Suge” Knight, the former music mogul who created one of hip-hop’s leading labels and became the impresario of gangster rap, was arrested early Friday on suspicion of hitting and killing a man with his truck and fleeing the scene of the crash near Los Angeles.
Knight’s attorney said the founder of Death Row Records accidentally ran over and killed a friend and injured another man Thursday as he tried to escape attackers. Witnesses told police an argument between the men escalated into Knight ramming the pair, then changing direction and ramming them a second time.
Authorities said he could face a murder charge.
The 49-year-old Knight, who has a long history of violent crimes, started the label that helped put West Coast rap on the map with the legendary group N.W.A., whose members included Dr. Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy E. The label also launched the career of Snoop Dogg and had Tupac Shakur in the last months of his life.