Story highlights
Video shows the shooting suspect running from the Sunset Strip club, investigators say
The handgun used to shoot "Suge" Knight and two others has not been found
The attack happened at a pre-VMA party hosted by singer Chris Brown
Knight and the two others are expected to recover
Detectives have video that shows a man shooting former rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight and two other people in a West Hollywood nightclub early Sunday, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
The shooter is seen running from the 1 Oak club, along with dozens of people who fled when they heard the gunshots, Los Angeles County Sheriff Deputy Crystal Hernandez said.
The shooter has not been identified and the handgun used to shoot Knight, 49, a 19-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man was not found, she said.
All three victims, including Knight, who suffered several gunshot wounds, are expected to survive, a sheriff’s spokesman said Sunday.
The shooting happened inside a celebrity-filled Sunset Strip party hosted by singer Chris Brown on the eve of the MTV Video Music Awards.
Brown posted a tweet after the incident: “It’s disappointing that we as a society can’t have fun or enjoy ourselves without any altercations sometimes. Miss me with the bulls**t!!!”
Brown is still on probation for beating singer and then-girlfriend Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 Grammys.
A grainy cell phone video posted on Instagram shows Brown standing on the back of a couch and yelling in the aftermath of the shooting. Brown’s bodyguard can be seen trying to get him down. The singer has colored his hair blond and is wearing a white shirt and jeans in the video.
Knight rose to fame and fortune after founding Death Row Records in 1991 and 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.
Shortly afterward, Knight spent several years in prison for violating parole on assault and weapons convictions. That prison time – along with Shakur’s death, feuds between Knight and a number of rappers and desertions by Dr. Dre, Snoop and others – contributed to the label’s bankruptcy in 2006.
This was not Knight’s first time being shot at a pre-VMA party. He was shot in the leg at a party hosted by rapper Kanye West at a Miami hotel on the eve of the 2005 VMA show.