Rap exec mum about shooting

Cathy Scott

Thursday, Sept. 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Four days after he and rapper Tupac Shakur were shot, Marion "Suge" Knight has finally talked to detectives, but he offered few, if any, new details on the weekend shooting, Metro Police said.

"We were hoping he would tell us who shot him," homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning said. "He didn't give us anything beneficial. I would consider him telling us who shot him beneficial. Nothing he said helped us (in the investigation)."

Knight also did not shed light on a possible motive for the shooting.

Three attorneys accompanied Knight about 6 p.m. Wednesday to the West Charleston Boulevard offices of Metro's homicide division where detectives questioned him for about an hour.

Shakur, 25, was still in critical condition today in a medicinally induced coma and on a respirator at University Medical Center's trauma unit. He has been critical since undergoing three surgeries, one of which was to remove his right lung to stop internal bleeding. Police reports today that Shakur's condition had improved were not confirmed by UMC.

Knight, 31, was driving a BMW on East Flamingo Road after the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight fight Saturday night when a gunman in a white late-model Cadillac pulled up next to them and emptied a semiautomatic pistol into the passenger side.

Shakur was struck four times, in the chest and abdomen, and Knight suffered a minor wound from shrapnel.

As for explaining why Knight, with two flat tires, made a U-turn on East Flamingo after the shooting even though bicycle patrol officers were in pursuit, Manning would not comment. Knight was stopped by officers about a mile away, on the Strip and Harmon Avenue, where paramedics took the two men to UMC.

"We're not going to make any comments on any of that," Manning said.

He noted that Knight "is not a suspect. He is a victim and a witness."

Detectives "have no reason to interview him again," Manning said.