Police Raid Los Angeles Rap Label in Murder Probe

Police Raid Los Angeles Rap Label in Murder Probe Thu Nov 14, 3:06 PM ET By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police on Thursday raided the Beverly Hills office of rap impresario Marion "Suge" Knight's record company as they executed 17 warrants around Los Angeles and Las Vegas related to unspecified murder probes.

Officials for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Knight, long a figure of controversy in the music industry, was not a suspect. He was released from prison last year after serving four years in jail for a parole violation.

Local media reports said at least one person was taken into custody at the office of Tha Row Records, formerly Death Row Records, the hip-hop label founded and owned by Knight.

Officials refused to say what murders were being investigated, though they revealed that 17 warrants were served at offices and homes in the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas.

"They're seeking additional evidence in several homicides and a conspiracy-to-commit murder investigation," said Sheriff's Department spokesman Joe Efflandt, declining further comment.

Knight's lawyer, Arthur Barens, said he had no information about what police were looking for but said he was "assured that Mr. Knight is not a suspect or a target of this investigation."

"We do not know the identities of any of the persons on the warrants," Barens told Reuters. "We understand there were both search warrants and some arrest warrants. We don't know if these are people who are known to Suge Knight."

He added, "We have offered to voluntarily cooperate with law enforcement if they have any inquiry of Mr. Knight. ... He is as confused as everyone else is, and he's as lacking in knowledge about this matter as everyone else is so far."

WARRANTS SERVED IN MALIBU, COMPTON, LAS VEGAS

Barrens said he was informed that warrants also were served at locations in Compton, Malibu and Las Vegas and that some of the locations included past and present homes of Knight.

He said he had no idea whether Thursday's raids were linked to investigations into the unsolved murders of three well-known rap stars -- Tupac Shakur in 1996, Notorious B.I.G. in 1997 or Jam Master Jay two weeks ago.

Earlier this year, a federal racketeering probe of Knight and his record label regarding allegations of murder, drug trafficking, money laundering and gun running was brought to a close with the company pleading guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax charges. A letter from prosecutors to Knight's lawyer at the time cleared Knight of tax violations or money laundering, but did not exonerate him on allegations of racketeering, murder or other violent offenses.

Knight was jailed in October 1996 for violating his probation on a previous assault conviction by allegedly kicking a man during a scuffle at a Las Vegas hotel. That scuffle took place hours before Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in September 1996. Knight was driving the car in which Shakur was shot. Rival rap star Christopher Wallace, known as Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was gunned down gangland style in Los Angeles in March 1997.

Those killings remain unsolved, as does the shooting death of Jason Mizell, known as Jam Master Jay of the pioneering rap group Run DMC, who was gunned down in a New York City recording studio on Oct. 30.

Speculation about Death Row's links to the Shakur and B.I.G. cases has persisted and is central to filmmaker Nick Broomfield's just released documentary, "Biggie & Tupac" and Randall Sullivan's book, "Labyrinth: A Detective Investigates the Murders of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, the Implication of Death Row Records' Suge Knight, and the Origins of the Los Angeles Police Scandal."

A recent Los Angeles Times article speculated that Notorious B.I.G. was behind the Shakur murder.