The court of public opinion rarely requires proof, but more evidence has been admitted for the Suge Knight murder case. Late last night, TMZ posted blurry footage from what looks like the drive-thru of Tam’s Burgers, the Compton fast food spot where hip hop mogul Suge Knight ran over two men with his pick-up truck, killing one on Jan. 29.
Still deciding whether to watch it? No judgments from us, but let’s be clear: This isn’t news. You won’t learn anything. You can watch it, just like you can watch a lot of horrible things online, but don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s anything more than the midpoint between a weepy 911 recording from the tragic crime story of the week and the latest ISIS execution video.
According to TMZ, the footage was supplied by the family of Terry Carter, the 55-year-old man who was killed during the incident. And although TMZ blurred out Carter’s actual death, the “warning: graphic content” label is still warranted. It’s a sickening clip. But for all its grisly, hard-to-shake images, the footage doesn’t answer a lot of questions.
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For some background, the incident stemmed from an altercation on the set of “Straight Outta Compton,” the movie about the 1980s and ’90s rap group NWA. Knight and Cle “Bone” Sloan exchanged words during that visit. (Sloan’s lawyer says his client was a technical adviser on the film; according to Daily Beast, that included security and location scouting.) Knight left the set, but, as he was leaving in his red pickup truck, the argument continued.
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In the video, you can see the truck roll into view and a man approach the driver’s side window. According to TMZ, this is Sloan. It’s difficult to tell what’s happening, because the windshield remains mostly out of frame and the truck is between the viewer and Sloan, but Knight’s truck begins to shake, though it’s hard to tell why — a physical confrontation between the two, or one of the men making motions that jostle the vehicle. Three other men slowly approach, including Carter, just as Knight shifts into reverse and drives out of view of the camera, causing Sloan to fall to the ground. From the peculiar camera angle, it almost looks like he’s being run over, though reportedly he was merely clipped by the side mirror.
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A moment passes before the truck again emerges, going forward at high speed. You can definitely see Sloan being run over, and even through TMZ’s censoring blur, you can see Carter getting trapped and dragged for a bit by the truck’s front tire until he too is run over and the truck drives away. Shortly after the incident Knight turned himself into police and he’s been in custody since.
Both the prosecution and the defense are using the video to prove different points. Prosecutors are showing the nightmare incident and letting it speak for itself. But Knight’s lawyers have claimed Sloan had a firearm — TMZ superimposes an arrow video pointing to the “possible gun” — and argued that the weapon caused Knight to react the way he did.
The truth is, the footage is murky. Instead of answering questions, it raises more. Could Knight have continued to reverse and exited a different way? Could he have turned right and exited through the drive-thru? It’s impossible to tell because the rest of the parking lot is out of frame. One of the other men at the scene looks like he might put something in his waistband or pocket that he took from Sloan’s hand. Is it a gun? Maybe. It could also be a phone, a wallet or any other number of small, dark objects.
In other words, if you want to watch two men get run over, the footage is now online. But don’t expect to be enlightened in the process.
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