Rap Mogul ‘Suge’ Knight Charged in Fatal Hit-and-Run

    Rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight appears in a Las Vegas courtroom on a traffic warrant in 2014. Photo by AP/John Locher

Rap music icon Marion “Suge” Knight has been charged in the death of one man and the injury of another after they were struck by a pickup truck in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant in Compton, Calif.

One man, 55, died at a hospital. Another man, 51, was injured but his condition was unknown. At the time of reporting, Knight was being held at a West Hollywood police station on $2 million bail.

9NEWS reports:

The victim has been named by TMZ as Terry Carter, a friend of Knight’s who was reportedly attempting to get into the car when he was hit.

… Late Thursday, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lieutenant John Corina told reporters that the crash occurred around 3 pm PST (10am AEDT) in the parking lot of the restaurant in the Los Angeles-area city of Compton and then the driver took off.

“Looks like he drove backwards and struck the victims and drove forwards and struck them again,” Lt Corina said.

“The people we talked to say it looked like it was an intentional act,” he said.

Knight gained his reputation in the music industry after starting Death Row Records, which helped push “gangsta rap” into mainstream music. He signed to his label such major artists as Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre in the early 1990s and has been the subject of vigorous controversy throughout his career.

— Posted by Donald Kaufman.