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Police: Proof fired first bullet
[UPDATE] D12 rapper and longtime Eminem friend got into a fight over a pool game that escalated into gunfire, police say; suspect comes forward; Snoop calls for unity.
The already stunned and somber friends and family of D12 rapper Proof got more bad news when police said the longtime Eminem sidekick fired the first shot in a Detroit-nightclub gunfight that cost him his life Tuesday morning.
Proof's 2005 solo debut
Detroit police said they are still piecing together the incident that occurred around 4:30 a.m. at the CCC nightclub on Detroit's famed 8 Mile Road, but that it appears that Proof, 32, whose real name was DeShaun Holton, got into a fight with Keith Bender Jr., 35, an Operation Desert Storm veteran, over a pool game.
Police said they believe that Proof pistol-whipped and shot Bender in the head, before reportedly being shot as many as four times, including at least once in the head, by an unknown suspect. That suspect has come forward and is believed to be a relative of Bender, but has yet to be publicly named by police.
Bender remains in critical condition at a nearby hospital.
Proof was considered a centerpiece of the Detroit area hip-hop scene, hosting freestyle battles in the early 1990s and forming D12 as a supergroup that included himself, Eminem, and four other renowned local rappers.
Proof was also one of Eminem's closest friends, serving at his second wedding to his now-estranged wife Kim Mathers in January.
Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg called for unity in the hip-hop community following the shooting.
"We can't stop it [violence]...we try to...we try to be as positive as we can and do good things with our lives," he said at the MTV Australia Music Awards. "I just know that every time somebody gets killed in hip-hop, we should look at it as a tragedy."
"There's nothing we can do to stop it as hip-hop artists but be who we are and continue to make our good music."
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