Former music mogul Suge Knight arrested in LA for alleged assault with deadly weapon

Suge Knight arrested in LA for alleged assault

LOS ANGELES — Ex-rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight was arrested Thursday after he allegedly pointed a gun at a man and then drove off in his Cadillac, police said.

Knight, 45, was stopped by California Highway Patrol officers in suburban Gardena at about 12:30 a.m. and immediately turned over to Los Angeles police who swarmed around his white Escalade, according to police and news videos.

The brawny, bald, bearded Knight was handcuffed.

“He was cooperative,” Los Angeles police officer April Harding said.

Knight’s car was stopped after someone called authorities to report that Knight had pointed a gun at him, Harding said. She did not know whether any weapon was found and did not have other details.

Knight was booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon — a gun — and also on a misdemeanor warrant alleging that he drove with a suspended license, Harding said.

He was being held on $65,000 bail, she said.

It was not immediately clear whether Knight, a convicted felon, was still on parole. If he is, carrying a gun would be a parole violation that could end him back in jail.

A call to Knight’s attorney, Marc Brumer, was not immediately returned.

Knight co-founded Death Row Records, which helped make stars of rappers such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur. The label’s fortunes — and Knight’s — started to slide when Shakur was shot and killed in 1996 while riding in the passenger seat of Knight’s car in Las Vegas.

The debt-ridden label later went bankrupt and was sold.

Knight and several Los Angeles police officers were sued for wrongful death in connection with the 1997 death of rapper Biggie Smalls, who was shot outside a Los Angeles museum.

The rapper’s estate claimed that Knight ordered the killing in revenge for Shakur’s death. Knight denied the allegations and the suit was dismissed in April.

Last year, Knight pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for beating his then-girlfriend in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2008.

In 1992, Knight was convicted of assault and placed on probation, then jailed for five years in 1996 for violating that probation.

He was returned to jail in 2003 for again violating parole for punching a parking attendant at a Hollywood nightclub. He was released the next year.