In 1993, Snoop Dogg was charged with first-degree murder after a member of a rival gang was shot and killed by Snoop's bodyguard, who fired the shot while in the then 21-year-old rapper's vehicle. | iHeart
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After having a heated run-in with rival gang members one August afternoon outside his apartment, Snoop found himself back in their presence hours after their first encounter. "The gang bangers from outside the apartment. Out in the open, in plain sight, sitting at the picnic table in the Palms Park. Right there by the tent," Jake details, setting the scene for the impending crime. "Snoop didn't think, he accelerated, rolled up on them, stopped the Jeep."
"The gang bangers looked up from the sweaty Mexican food they were eating. One of them,
Little Smooth, aka
Phillip Woldermariam, stood up. Snoop and Malik had looks on their faces that said the same thing. 'What the fuck?' Phillip's broke out, 'I'm not trying to sweat you all. I'm just trying to let you know where you're at,'" Jake explains of the incident. "Malik stood up in the topless Jeep, towering over the Cherokee's windshield and staring with menace, at Phillip. Phillip grew agitated and shouted out, 'Oh, what? I'm a punk now?' Malik hit him back with a stern, 'What?' Phillip's friend, Jason London, who was at the scene, later testified that that's when Malik pulled his pistol and took aim at Phillip."
What happened next, would go on to become the basis of Snoop's 1995 trial. "Phillip then, according to Malik anyway, reached back for his .380, tucked into his waistband. Malik caught the move. Snoop ducked. Malik fired from the Jeep, and Phillip fell to the ground before he was able to draw on Snoop and his crew," Jake shares. "Snoop banged on the accelerator and got the hell out of there. He, Malik and Sean went into hiding. Phillip Woldermariam went into the afterlife, died on the scene, face down in the streets."