Suge Knight Slaps Chris Brown With Lawsuit Over 2014 Shooting

Former Death Row Records CEO claims “gang associate” singer and L.A.’s 1OAK nightclub failed to provide sufficient security

suge knight chris brown

Rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight has filed a lawsuit against singer Chris Brown and the owners of a Los Angeles nightclub for damages related to a shooting that left the former Death Row Records CEO seriously wounded.

In papers filed in L.A. Superior Court on Monday, Knight claims that Brown and the owners of 1OAK, where the pop star threw an unofficial MTV VMAs pre-party in August 2014, “negligently failed to provide adequate/any security at all possible points of entry into the venue,” at which “one or more unknown individuals were allowed access to the event with weapons, including firearms.”

Knight was shot several times, in the abdomen, chest and left forearm, when someone opened fire at the party around 1:30 a.m. Two other attendees were also struck by gunfire in the melee, including a 32-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman. The gunman remains at large.

Claiming Brown was “a known gang associate with a history of violence and had a well-documented track record of hosting events and or parties in which violence frequently erupted,” Knight is suing for medical expenses, special damages, future medical expenses, prospective special damages and general damages.

Knight was once at the vanguard of the gangster rap movement himself, founding the record label that gave rise to multiplatinum artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur.

He has also proven a master of bullet magnetism in the past, having been shot in the leg at a VMAs pre-party in Miami in 2005, and manning the wheel of the car in which Shakur was killed during a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip in 1996.

Knight has been detained in Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles since Jan. 30, 2015 on murder charges. He stands accused of running over and killing Terry Carter and striking Cle “Bone” Sloan earlier that month in an altercation during promotional shooting for the N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” Knight has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder charges related to the incident.

Damages sought in the lawsuit were not specified.

Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.

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