Detroit Club Where Rapper Killed to Close

DETROIT - The nightclub where the rapper Proof, a confidante of Eminem, died in a shootout that also left another man dead will close for a year under a deal with authorities.

The CCC nightclub also must pay fines totaling $600 for illegally operating after hours, the Wayne County prosecutor's office announced Thursday.

Proof, 32, whose real name was Deshaun Holton, died April 11 after being shot in a fight that occurred 2 1/2 hours after the club's legal closing time.

Proof was a member of the rap group D12 and was the best man at Eminem's January wedding.

Army veteran Keith Bender, 35, also was shot and died a week later.

Police say Proof shot Bender before Bender's cousin, Mario Etheridge, shot Proof. Etheridge is charged with carrying a concealed weapon and discharging a firearm in a building.

Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy sued the club's owners in Wayne County Circuit Court. She released a statement Thursday saying the settlement had been reached and that it included the club's closing and the fine.

Worthy said state law for a nuisance violation permits only a one-year closing.

"We got everything we could under the law, and we got it very quickly," she told the Detroit Free Press. "We have learned from the untimely death of Keith Bender and Deshaun Holton that these clubs are not only dangerous to the patrons, but present serious quality-of-life issues for the law-abiding citizens that live near them."

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