The L.A. County District Attorney’s office has quickly rejected a gun charge against Dr. Dre after the super-producer was falsely accused of pulling a weapon on a man during an encounter near his home in Malibu.
According to TMZ, the incident took place Monday (July 25), when an unidentified motorist blocked the entrance to Dre’s (born Andre Young) driveaway. The man took off, but later returned and parked near Dre’s home. When the producer pulled out his phone to record the incident, the man demanded a citizen’s arrest, claiming the 51-year-old had a gun.
The “Straight Outta Compton” producer was briefly detained by police. No gun was found at the scene and the case was thrown out to due to “insufficient evidence.” He was also given a citation for a court appearance, but it isn’t known if it will dropped. CNN reports the producer was described as “cooperative” by the police.
The incident sparked a conversation online about classism and race in times of heated tension between people of color and police officers. Even Jerry Heller, the former manager of N.W.A. called the arrest a “racial issue.” “As you know, professionally I’m a big Dr. Dre fan. Personally, I’m not such a big Dr. Dre fan but I think this was all bulls**t,” Heller told TMZ. “I wasn’t there but it just sounds like all bulls***t to me. What did he do? He was trying to leave his house [and] the guy had his driveway blocked. You would have done the same thing.“Without knowing all the facts it seems to me it was a racial issue.”
Dr. Dre hasn’t released a statement on the incident.