Image: Chris Brown performs during the 2015 BET Awards in Los Angeles, California, June 28, 2015. REUTERS/Kevork Djansezian
Former rap music producer Marion “Suge” Knight sued singer Chris Brown on Monday in connection with a shooting at a West Hollywood nightclub in 2014 that left him with seven gunshot wounds.
The civil lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court accused Brown, who was hosting the event with musician Pia Mia Perez at the 1 OAK club on August 23, 2014, and the club’s owners of being negligent in providing a safe environment.
The lawsuit accused Brown of being a “known gang associate” and said he had hosted events in the past at which violence erupted so the club should have had stricter security.
“Aware of this documented past and the high likelihood of violence including the possession and or use of firearms by those attending the event the defendants, and each of them, had a duty to provide adequate security,” the 10-page lawsuit said.
Representatives for Brown and Perez could not be immediately reached for comment on Monday.
A person who answered the phone for 1 OAK said, “We have no comment on anything.”
Knight, who co-founded hip hop label Death Row Records, is in jail on a murder charge. He has been accused of running over two people in January 2015 near Los Angeles, killing one and injuring the other. The trial is scheduled to start Aug. 1.
He and comedian Katt Williams are also awaiting trial on charges of robbing a paparazzi photographer of a camera and making a criminal threat.
Knight has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
In the lawsuit, he is seeking unspecified damages in excess of $25,000.
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Writing by Curtis Skinner)
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