An Evening To Forget

  It’s a hot and humid Saturday night in Miami.  Celebrities have taken to the city like Mediterranean fruit flies to California grapes.  Outside the posh Shore Club, an off-duty Florida Highway Patrolman works security amid throngs of screaming fans who are eager to get in.  VIP’s are ushered in, through the crowd to the Red Room.  Among them are Paris Hilton, Suge Knight, Eddie Murphy, Jessica Alba, the Black Eyed Peas, and The Game.  It’s an elite group, but one that wasn’t too hard to assemble.  An invitation to Kanye West’s pre-MTV Video Music Awards bash isn’t something often refused.

  The mood is one of celebration and relief.  Miami had just dodged the bullet of Hurricane Katrina, and the VMA’s were less than 24 hours away.  Inside the Shore Club, bikini-clad models drifted around donning angels’ wings, and white mist wafted throughout the club.  About 600 party-goers thanked the heavens that they were enjoying this evening in the company of their favorite celebrities.  It was a night they’d never forget.

  But now, no one can remember exactly what happened at 42 minutes after midnight.  It was then that a man, maybe a black man wearing a pink shirt, maybe a man in a grey, hooded sweatshirt, walked into the Red Room.  He walked up the Death Row Records founder Suge Knight with little commotion.  From his pants he pulled a pistol and squeezed off at least two shots, maybe six, maybe more—party-goers can’t really remember.

  Within seconds, Knight was on the floor under a pile of bodyguards.  He was bleeding from the leg.  Many of those attending the party were also on the ground, others stampeding toward the door.  Knight was rushed in a limousine to Mt. Sinai Medical Center, where he would undergo surgery to remove the bullet in his leg and to repair a broken bone.  Meanwhile, police and firefighters evacuated the Shore Club.  They questioned those in attendance, none of whom could provide any answers.  They just couldn’t remember seeing anything.

  Suge Knight is hardly a saint.  It was Suge that was driving the car when Tupac Shakur was killed.  It was Suge that was rumored to be involved in the murder of The Notorious B.I.G.  It was Suge that was accused of provoking the stabbings at last year’s VIBE Awards, and who, rumor has it, once dangled Vanilla Ice from the rooftop of a skyscraper.  He is a known affiliate of the Bloods, one of America’s most notorious street gangs.

  Again, Suge’s no angel, and he probably didn’t fit the motif of Kanye’s heavenly-themed soiree.  And throughout his illustrious career as one of hip-hop’s most powerful moguls, he has made more enemies than friends.  Soon, the rumor mill will begin to offer theories as to who is responsible, but currently police investigating the case are being met with blank looks and dumb stares.

  “We don’t have any physical description.  We don’t know how many subjects were involved, which is mind-boggling, with all those people around,” Miami Beach police spokesman Bobby Hernandez told The Miami Herald.

  Apparently, it was an evening to forget.    

-From Pulse
   September 1, 2005