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Suge Knight’s Alleged History of Violence

Suge Knight was one of the biggest moguls and most intimidating figures in rap during the early 1990s. At 6 feet 2 inches tall and 265 pounds, the former college football player was the last person you would want to have a dispute with.

Tales of him beating men, making men drink urine, and hanging guys over balconies helped solidify his reputation as the boogeyman of hip hop. His wealth, along with his connections to LA Street gangs and dirty cops, made him think he was untouchable and could get away with anything.

Unfortunately, he learned the hard way that money won’t always buy you freedom. Today, we’ll look at some of Knight’s confirmed and alleged crime history.

In 1987, Knight was arrested and charged with domestic violence for assaulting his girlfriend and cutting off her ponytail. She filed a restraining order, but they eventually got back together, married, and had children.

In October 1987, Knight was arrested for stealing a vehicle while carrying a concealed weapon. He was also charged with attempted murder after firing three shots at the man he stole the car from. Somehow, he pleaded no contest and avoided prison time. He only received 2 years’ probation.

Knight had several incidents in the early 1990s, one in which he and his goons forced Eazy E and Jerry Heller to let artists Dr. Dre, DOC, and Michel’le out of their ruthless record contracts. Another time, he forced rapper Vanilla Ice to sign over 25% of the rights to his hit song, Ice Ice Baby, to an artist Knight was managing. These incidents could have led to serious jail time for Knight, but he was never charged with any crimes.

In 1992, two aspiring rappers were in the studio to work with Dr. Dre. Apparently, they didn’t know who Knight was, so when he told them they couldn’t be on the phone, they disrespected him. Knight made the brothers strip down to their underwear before he pistol-whipped and fired shots at them. He threatened to kill them if they went to the police. Despite his threats, the brothers went to the authorities, and Knight was later arrested.

Knight was already on probation at the time of this crime. However, he signed the prosecutor’s daughter to a record deal with Death Row. The prosecutor pressured the victims to accept a civil settlement. He also got Knight a deal that kept him out of jail. He pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to a 9-year suspended sentence and 5 years of probation. Meaning any violation over the next 5 years could send him to prison for 9 years.

In 1994 or 1995, he pleaded no contest to Federal firearms trafficking charges and was given probation. The details on this case are very limited.

In 1995, one of Sean Combs’ associates, Mark Anthony Bell, showed up at a Death Row Christmas party. He apparently had done promotional work for both Death Row and Bad Boy and didn’t think his attendance would be a big deal. He was wrong. Bell was allegedly taken to a private room, beaten, forced to drink urine, and interrogated by Knight, Tupac, and others about Comb’s address, which he refused to reveal.

Bell reportedly tried to escape and jump off a balcony, but was pulled back into the room. He got lucky that a photographer at the party saw him trying to escape. The photographer alerted the police. Dirty cops that were on Knight’s payroll let him and the other guys know the cops were on the way.  This gave them time to dispose of evidence and get their stories straight.

When the cops arrived, they asked Bell what was going on, but he didn’t speak up out of fear. Two days later, he went to the police, but they didn’t make any arrests. He later sued the men he accused of assaulting him and received a settlement of $600,000.

Tupac’s Murder And Suge’s Life In Prison

On September 7th, 1996, Knight, Tupac, and several others were in Las Vegas for the Mike Tyson fight against Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand. After the fight, death row associate, Travon Lane, saw a Southside Crip from LA named Orlando Anderson, who had robbed him of his chain months earlier.

He went to Tupac and pointed out Anderson. Tupac charged at Anderson and allegedly said, “You from the southside,” before punching Anderson. The rest of the death row entourage, dressed in fancy suits and nice jewelry, jumped in with punches and kicks. Knight threw one kick that would later cost him his freedom.

Later that evening, Knight and Tupac were heading to Death Row’s nightclub, Club 662, when a vehicle pulled up on their right side and fired multiple shots. TuPac was hit four times and died six days later at the age of 25.

Knight had a graze wound to his head but survived and was later arrested for a probation violation. He was given a 9-year sentence.

Even as he sat in prison, he still made his presence felt. When Eminem signed with Dr. Dre’s new label, Aftermath, and was making a name for himself, Knight allegedly sent goons to the Source Awards to harass them.

In another instance, Eminem arrived in Hawaii for a show, and he was notified by local authorities that 50 men had been sent to break it up. Those incidents did not result in any violence, but things could have gone south quickly if police and security were not on top of things.

Knight Regains His Freedom But Doesn’t Change His Ways

In August of 2001, Knight was released from prison, but he hadn’t changed. Early in December 2002, he served two months in prison for violating his parole by associating with gang members and moving to Malibu without telling his parole officer.

In August of 2003, he was back in jail for punching a parking lot attendant. Despite the attendant, Medhi Lazrak, and other witnesses backing away from their claims that Knight was behind the assault, he was still sentenced to 10 months in prison for violating his parole.

In 2005, Knight was stopped in Barstow, California, after making an unsafe U-turn. He was arrested for a parole violation after police found marijuana in the vehicle; he was also cited for not having insurance. He was released a week later and put on house arrest for 2 months.

On August 27th, 2008, at 6:30pm on the Las Vegas strip, two police officers allegedly witnessed Knight punching a naked female with one hand while holding a knife in the other hand. The cops said they were 10 feet away when they ordered Knight to drop the weapon and get on the ground. Knight was arrested for felony assault with a deadly weapon, drug possession, and misdemeanor domestic violence.

You would think having two police officers witness a crime would make the case a slam dunk, but it did not.
The woman disappeared after his arrest, and police couldn’t locate her. Without her testimony, the case went nowhere.

In February 2009, Knight was knocked out cold by an associate of Akon. One month later, men broke into the home of Akon’s producer, where they held four people at gunpoint and stole $300,000 worth of property. The men allegedly said they were there to collect a debt on behalf of Knight. No arrests were ever made, and Knight was never charged with a crime.

On February 8th, 2012, Knight was pulled over for making an unsafe lane change in Las Vegas. He was once again caught with marijuana and taken into custody due to warrants for past traffic violations. He received 3 years of unsupervised probation.

On September 5th, 2014, Knight believed camera woman, Leslie Redden, was taking photos of his son. He threatened her and talked about calling a female to come and beat her up.

As she tried to get away, comedian Katt Williams stopped her. A woman who was with Williams forced Redden to the ground and took her camera to delete the photos. Redden suffered neck, back, and head injuries as well as a dislocated finger in the incident. She later sued and won $35,000.

Knight and Williams were each charged with one count of Second-Degree robbery. Knight’s bail was set at $500,000, which he eventually paid.

In 2017, Williams pleaded no contest to second-degree robbery and received 3 years’ probation and 54 weeks of anger management classes. Knight’s charges were later dismissed when he pleaded guilty to the crime we’ll talk about next.

Death of Terry Carter

In January 2015, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were working on Straight Outta Compton, a movie about the rise and fall of the 80s rap group NWA and its members.

During filming, Knight showed up at the set. Knight and Dre founded Death Row Records in 1991, and it grew into one of the world’s biggest rap labels. Dre left the label in 1996 because of its violent culture and later founded Aftermath Records, much to Knight’s dismay.

Knight was known to hold grudges and had a reputation for popping up in unexpected places to intimidate people.

According to Knight’s testimony in a civil trial against him in 2022, he showed up at the set that day because he heard Dre paid some guys to harm him. He wanted to inform Dre what people were saying so they could clear the air on the allegations. Knight said he was not going there to start anything or demand money for using his name and likeness in the movie.

When he arrived, he got word that Dre & Ice Cube were too busy to see him, and he was prepared to leave. However, another person told him that Ice Cube wanted him to come to the trailer, so he decided to stay.

Moments after that exchange, Cle “Bone” Sloan, a security guard for the movie, came over and got into a dispute with Knight. Another security guard intervened before things could get physical between the two, and Knight left the film set.

After leaving the set, Knight received a call from his friend Terry Carter, a man he had known for over 30 years, asking him to return to the area. He says Carter told him they were trying to give him some money, and they would meet near Tam’s Burgers. Knight claimed Carter told him Dre would be there.

Knight headed back near the filming location and pulled into Tam’s parking lot. He claims he was ambushed by Sloan, who brandished a weapon and started punching him through the window. Knight backed his vehicle out of the parking lot, which knocked Sloan to the ground. He could have taken off down the street, but instead, he drove forward back into the parking lot and plowed into Carter, the man who had called him to come back to the area. Carter died while Sloan had broken bones, torn ligaments, and other injuries.

Legal Proceedings

Knight was questioned about why he backed out of the parking lot and turned around when he could have kept going down the street. Knight responded, saying fear “sort of freezes you.” Knight claimed it was an accident and he was just trying to get away from a dangerous situation.

Only he knows what was going on in his mind the moment he ran over Carter, and he probably won’t tell the public.

He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in September 2018. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He won’t be eligible for parole until October 2034, when he is 69.