Jailed Death Row Records founder Suge Knight testified for the first time about the day in 2015 when he tried to get a meeting with Dr. Dre and ended up barreling his truck into two men outside a nearby burger stand, killing one of them.
Knight’s long-awaited, sometimes contradictory sworn testimony was shown live to jurors in a Compton courthouse Wednesday as the centerpiece of his defense in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Carter’s wife and daughters.
“Dr. Dre — we’ve been really good friends for years. Matter of fact, I know his kids, he knows my kids. And I was told that he had paid some guys to harm me,” Knight testified. “I didn’t believe it because authorities do lie. So I went up there. …I was going to talk to him and say, ‘Hey man, I’m not going to react to what authorities say about you having something to do with me getting shot. I just want to make you aware they are saying this, putting it out there.
“He said, ‘They’re trying to take care of you, get some things squared away. Dre’s gonna come by Knob’s house. Come meet me over there.’ He said, ‘Man they’re trying to give you some bread,” Knight testified, saying he agreed, made a U-turn and headed to the location. “Isn’t it correct that instead of leaving on 142nd , after you had reversed out of the Tam’s parking lot, being in fear for your life, you decided to turn back into the Tam’s parking lot?” Behringer asked.
“Where I come from, from Compton, and how my parents taught me, being a child of God, it’s not about an eye for eye. …I wasn’t going to say, ‘Hey this person put a gun on me and tried to kill me,’ and put them in custody. But at the same time, once I knew they gave Bone immunity, and he can’t get in trouble, if I told the truth, nothing could happen to him, it’s a different story,” Knight claimed.
“That’s not true at all,” Knight said, launching into one of his more convoluted answers. “The truth is this: Tam’s is called ‘Murder Burger’ for a reason. One thing we all know is, you can’t do anything by the area of Tam’s because of the cameras. …Nobody pulled their gun out by Tam’s. Everyone knows there’s cameras. Ask anybody, they call Tam’s ‘Murder Burger.’ Lots of people who didn’t know they have cameras there, they’re still in prison today.