D.A.: Proof Killer No Murderer
There is no proof Proof was shot in cold blood.
This, per the Detroit area's top prosecutor who said Tuesday that the 28-year-old nightclub bouncer who gunned down Eminem's D12 compatriot won't be tried for murder.
Proof, whose real name was Deshaun Holton, died on Eminem's celebrated Eight Mile Road on Apr. 11, a bloody night that left the rapper and another man dead.
"The evidence clearly shows that Mario Etheridge acted in lawful self-defense of another when he shot Deshaun Holton," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said at a press conference, the Associated Press reported. "Once the gunshots started, everything happened fairly quickly."
Authorities say a legally drunk Proof shot Etheridge's cousin, Keith Bender Jr., 35, in an early-morning fight at the bar known as the C.C.C. Etheridge, who was on security detail, in turn, shot Proof, 32. Bender died a week later, on Apr. 18; Proof was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital.
Bender's family has already filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Proof's estate. In the complaint, it is alleged the hip-hop artist "violently assaulted and battered" Bender, a veteran of the Army. A lawyer for Proof has maintained that suggestions the rap star shot "reckless[ly]" would be "proved untrue."
Etheridge, for his part, has maintained he acted in self-defense. And while prosecutors backed him up, he will continue to stand trial on two felony weapons violations.
After Proof's death, the rapper was remembered by Eminem as his best friend and brother. In addition to their professional collaborations, Proof played best man last January at Eminem's ill-fated remarriage ceremony to Kimberly Mathers.
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