1 Killed, 2 Wounded Outside Music Studio

A bodyguard was killed and two rap-music artists were wounded when gunmen opened fire outside a recording studio Sunday night.

The shooting occurred about 11:40 p.m. near the gates of Echo Sounds in Atwater Village, where a rap recording had taken place, police said.

According to a witness and police accounts, the crew and artists were gathered in the studio’s patio after the recording session when at least two gunmen confronted them and began shooting without warning or provocation.

Dwayne Dupree, 23, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. Dupree, who went by the nickname “Draws,” was shot several times, a police report said.

Sources said Dupree was a bodyguard for Los Angeles rapper Ricardo “Kurupt” Brown and record producer Delmar “Daz” Arnaud, both of whom were formerly signed to Death Row Records.

Arnaud is the cousin of rapper Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus, and was at the studio producing tracks for a Texas-based record company, sources said.

The two wounded men were identified as recording artists Jevon Joves and Willard Givers, Det. J. Carrillo said.

Joves, a Death Row artist and rapper who goes by the name “The Realist,” and Givers, known as “Act Da Fool,” were treated for gunshot wounds at a hospital and released, a police report said.

A woman who lives near the studio said she heard people yelling outside shortly before the shooting. But the commotion seemed part of the normal hubbub that takes place at the studio every time artists record there, she said.

“All of a sudden we heard two different kinds of shotgun fire. I looked through the window and saw one man on the floor. Someone shouted ‘Call the police, my homeboy got shot’!” she said.

Police are looking for the gunmen, Carrillo said. The motive for the shooting remains unknown.