According to their accounts, Proof pistol-whipped Bender, then shot him in the face, at which point, while Proof stood over Bender threatening to shoot him again, Etheridge shot Proof three times.Įtheridge drove Bender to the hospital that night and without revealing his identity, phoned the police en route to report a shooting at the club, but he avoided detectives for several days thereafter.
#D12 world zip free free
From the start, the Detroit Free Press and other local news agencies took initial witness accounts at face value, and portrayed the incident as a thug rapper slaying a war veteran in cold blood. These are the facts, but the events that led to the twin shootings are not nearly as clear-cut as the Detroit police and press have suggested. Within a few minutes, both Bender and Proof were fatally shot: a bullet to Bender's face took his life eight days later (the same morning that Proof was buried), while Proof was killed instantly by two shots to his back and one to the back of his head. An altercation ensued, attracting the attention of the club's bouncer, Mario Etheridge, who is Bender's cousin. He found himself in an argument with Keith Bender Jr, a 35-year-old Desert Storm veteran, allegedly during a game of pool. That night, he had been at the CCC club, an after-hours establishment on a sketchy stretch of East 8 Mile road in Detroit, where he and a few friends were playing pool after a night of party-hopping. Eminem had lost the best friend he had ever known, the only person who had stood by him since his teens, his right-hand man both on and off-stage.ĭeShaun Dupree Holton, aka P, Big Proof, Proof or Derty Harry, died at 4.30am on 11 April at the age of 32. He repeatedly embraced members of Proof's family - his wife Sharonda, mother Sherallene and grandmother Myra - crying with them, hugging them, and rocking back and forth. Wearing a black suit and a black T-shirt emblazoned with Proof's likeness, he moved slowly, hunched over, a shadow of his usual self. The loss visibly weighed on the hip-hop superstar. Dre, Xzibit, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck of G-Unit, and Treach and Vinnie of Naughty by Nature were there, as well as the remaining members of Proof's group D12 and a host of other local luminaries: members of Slum Village, of 5 Ela, Goon Sqwad, Promatic and more.Įminem sat between his manager, Paul Rosenberg, and 50 Cent in the second row, just behind Proof's mother, wife, aunts, children and cousins. Proof's family - blood and musical - filled the front rows of the chapel. The next day, the 2,000-capacity chapel was packed, with its car park holding the overflow, the crowd listening to the four-hour service via loudspeaker.
Floral tributes were gathered around: one arrangement spelled out the word 'Daddy' while another was fashioned into an orange P another read '8 Mile' in red roses, and another was in the shape of a white heart with a gold ribbon that read 'Spice of Life'. The rapper was laid out in a 24-carat gold-plated casket and had been dressed in a beige suit, his trademark Kangol cap and a pair of brown Seamless Edition Air Force 1 trainers a Detroit Pistons jersey signed by his fans and friends on the basketball team was also draped over his dead body. Queuing by 8.30am, they were sent home over 12 hours later throughout the day, the stream of human traffic never stopped.
F our thousand fans passed through the Fellowship Chapel on West Outer Drive, Detroit, Michigan, to pay their last respects to Proof on 18 April.