Hip hop mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was today set to be questioned by detectives after allegedly killing a man in a hit-and-run incident.
The death occurred yesterday afternoon in the car park of a fast-food restaurant in the Los Angeles County city of Compton.
Lawyers for Knight, 49, co-founder of the famous Death Row Records, insisted he had accidentally run over and killed a friend and injured another man as he fled attackers in Los Angeles County, California.
But police said the incident was being investigated as a homicide and that witnesses who had reported arguments moments before in the car park, and at a different location where a video was being shot, indicated it had been an “intentional act”.
Knight, who has a long history of run-ins with the law, ranging from assaults to driving offences, was said to be on the run but handed himself in to police today, pictured arriving at West Hollywood police station earlier this morning.
His lawyer James Blatt said he was “confident that once the investigation is completed, he will be totally exonerated,” adding: “He (Knight) was in the process of being physically assaulted by two men and in an effort to escape, he unfortunately hit two (other) individuals.
“He was in his car trying to escape.”
A 55-year-old man died in hospital and a 51-year-old man was injured in the incident.
The businessman founded Death Row Records in the 1990s, presiding over releases by artists such as Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur.
He was later declared bankruptcy and the company was auctioned off.
Last August, Knight recovered after being shot six times at a Los Angeles nightclub. No arrests have been made.
