Associate of Murder Inc. chief held

An associate of Murder Inc. chief Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo, whose music label is under federal investigation for alleged money laundering, was taken into custody Thursday as a suspect in the shooting of a New York police captain.

Tyran Moore surrendered after a three-hour standoff with dozens of police officers at a residence in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Moore, whose street name is Tah Tah, gained notoriety last year in a lyric on “Guess Who’s Back?” by 50 Cent, the Queens rap star. On one track, 50 Cent -- who was shot nine times in 2000 by unknown assailants -- singles out Moore as a potential suspect in his shooting:

Get back to questions, like “50, who shot ya?

You think it was Preme, Freeze or Tah Tah?”

Murder Inc. is co-owned by Vivendi Universal’s Island Def Jam division. 50 Cent records for Shady/Aftermath/Interscope, another Universal operation.

Police suspect that Moore may be the man who shot and wounded Capt. Kenneth Girven in an attack early Wednesday morning on the streets of Harlem.

The shooting occurred after Girven, a member of the city’s anti-gang unit, stepped out of an unmarked police car and confronted two men hiding behind a parked vehicle. The pair fled after firing a 9-millimeter handgun at Girven, hitting him once in the stomach.

By late Thursday, police had not filed charges against Moore. A police spokesman said the investigation was continuing.

Moore is believed to be a longtime associate of former drug lord Kenneth “Preme” McGriff, whose Supreme Team street gang dominated the crack cocaine trade in a Queens housing project during the 1980s, police and music industry sources said.

McGriff is at the center of a federal investigation launched last year by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

Authorities have alleged that McGriff delivered cash from illegal drugs to Murder Inc.’s offices as part of an elaborate money-laundering scheme tied to the company’s first movie project, “Crime Partners,” according to court records.

Moore and McGriff were seen last year visiting Lorenzo at the Murder Inc. office, then located in Island Def Jam’s Manhattan headquarters, law enforcement sources said.

Murder Inc. and Def Jam declined to comment, but sources at both companies said Moore was never on the payroll and had no ties to the label.

McGriff’s attorney, Robert Simels, said his client had not sold drugs since his release from prison in 1995 and never participated in any money-laundering scheme. In addition, Simels said Moore’s arrest had nothing to do with McGriff.

“Whatever may have happened in this case, it has no connection to Kenneth McGriff,” Simels said.