Police Report: Proof Fired First

Proof -- the D12 rapper and longtime friend of Eminem who was fatally shot during a shootout Tuesday at a Detroit club -- fired the first bullet, police stated Wednesday.

The victim, Keith Bender, 35, was shot in the head at 3C, a bar located on the city's famed Eight Mile strip. Police were called to the scene around 5 a.m. after reports of gunfire and fighting at the venue, which was operating illegally after-hours.

According to police spokesman Sgt. Omar Feliciano, detectives are currently trying to determine who in turn shot Proof, who was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Proof was among the most revered MCs in Detroit and befriended fellow Motor City rapper Eminem before joining Em's rap troupe D12. Proof went on to make a brief appearance in Em's hit biopic, 8 Mile, and was ever-present in the courtroom in 2001, when Eminem was battling gun charges. Proof also served as the best man at the superstar rapper's wedding to his on-and-off love Kim Mathers last January.

He released his solo debut, Searching for Jerry Garcia, last summer on his independent label Iron Fist Records. "It's a long time coming," he told Rolling Stone shortly before the release. "I'm very nervous because of the perception of the group we run with -- there's a lot of pressure."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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