Gang Members Accused Suge Knight Of 'Killing Tupac & Called Him A Traitor' Before Opening Fire, Says Pal

Suge Knight was shot a staggering six times early Sunday morning at Chris Brown's pre-VMA party and a longtime friend who was by his side exclusively tells RadarOnline.com it was gang members who accused the music producer of being responsible for Tupac Shakur's 1996 death.

"The argument started outside and then moved inside," Knight's longtime pal and business associate, Keith Middlebrook, told Radar.

"Two gang members showed up and accused Suge of killing Tupac and called him a traitor. I think they were two guys from Compton. They yelled at Suge, 'You killed Tupac!'"

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According to Middlebrook, Knight told them to "f**k off" and it escalated to violence from there — nothing that unlike many reports, Brown was never the target.

"A gun was pulled out and there were about 10 to 12 shots fired," Middlebrook says, who was outside at the valet when the shots were fired inside the club.

"I could hear bang, bang, bang over again loudly. Suge didn’t have a gun, but one of the gang members had a gun."

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When the commotion started, Middlebrook said he called Knight on the phone asking him where he was.

"He said, 'I’m inside. Dude got me,'” Middlebrook revealed.

“I told him to come outside and that’s when cops got to him. Suge came out holding his stomach and I was about 40 feet way and then the ambulance came to take him away."

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According to Middlebrook, the rapper is still at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the ICU, but is expected to recover.

"He was shot six times. One that grazed him, two went through him and three were lodged in stomach. And they removed all three,” said Middlebrook, who’s also producing a new Tupac film, Don Makaveli, and says he was at 1Oak to meet with Knight to talk about Tupac and his side of the story about what happened the night the “Changes" rapper was killed.

Shakur was actually traveling in Knight's car on the Sept. night he was killed and Knights was hit in the head by fragmentation that likely came from a bullet grazing him.

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"Suge is tough and has nine lives like a black alley cat," Middlebrook added.