Police interview rap mogul Suge Knight after fatal hit-and-run

[January 30, 2015] LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was being interviewed by authorities early on Friday morning, officials said, hours after he was named as a suspect in a hit-and-run that killed one person near Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement that Knight arrived at the office's West Hollywood station accompanied by his attorney and was taking questions from homicide detectives.

Around 3 p.m. (2300 GMT) on Thursday, a man fitting Knight's description drove up to a Compton burger shop and began arguing with two people outside, said Lieutenant John Corina, with Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The driver then backed into one of the victims, before running them both over in his red Ford F-150 Raptor pickup truck and fleeing the scene, the department said in a statement.

Corina added that Knight, the 49-year-old co-founder of Death Row Records, was involved in an earlier altercation with the same two people.

One of the victims died in hospital, the Sheriff's Department statement said. The condition of the second victim, who was also taken to the hospital, was not immediately known.

A Las Vegas-based lawyer who has represented Knight in past legal proceedings could not be reached for comment on Thursday evening. A number previously used to reach Knight directly was disconnected.

In November, Knight pleaded 'not guilty' to a criminal charge stemming from accusations that he stole a camera from a celebrity photographer outside a Beverly Hills studio. He was later released on bail.

A few months earlier, Knight was shot and wounded inside a packed West Hollywood nightclub along with two others during a party in advance of the MTV Music Video Awards.

Death Row Records was a leading rap label in the 1990s, featuring artists such as Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg.

However, Knight's hip-hop empire declined after he went to prison for a parole violation, Shakur was murdered and Dr. Dre left the label.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Curtis Skinner; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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