The man who police say shot and killed D12 rapper Proof in a night club last month acted "lawfully in defence of another man", or at least that's the conclusion of the county prosecutor investigating the case.
Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy told a news conference yesterday that Mario Etheridge, the man who shot Proof, only did so in a bid to save his cousin Keith Bender, who was shot and killed by the rapper during the incident. She said that Etheridge shot twice at the ceiling in a bid to stop Proof from attacking Bender, before turning the gun on the rapper. Worthy: "The evidence clearly shows that Mario Etheridge acted in lawful self-defence of another when he shot Deshaun Holton [aka Proof]. Once the gunshots started, everything happened fairly quickly."
Although he made no comment yesterday, Etheridge's lawyer Randall Upshaw has previously thrown some light on what happened at the after hours Detroit club on the night of 11 Apr, albeit from his client's point of view. He claims that Proof became "belligerent" during a game of pool and argued with another customer. That customer stopped to speak to him again on his way out of the bar, leading to another argument involving Bender. Proof left the club shortly after the incident, but later returned with a gun and "pistol-whipped" Bender before shooting him in the face. Etheridge, a bouncer at the club, then took a gun off another customer and fired at Proof in defence of Bender.
It is not clear to what extent the prosecution agree with that view of events, though Worthy says that witnesses say that, rather than grabbing another customer's gun, Etheridge had two guns on him when the incident began. To that end, he still faces a number of weapons charges which may lead to up to nine years in prison. His pre-trial court date is this Friday.