Proof’s Shooter Fined, Sentenced to Time Served

Mario Etheridge, the Detroit man who fatally shot D12 rapper Proof, was sentenced on Thursday (October 26) by Judge Vera Massey Jones to time served and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine for discharging a firearm in a building. Etheridge was found guilty in September of the charge as well as one count of carrying a concealed weapon, but prosecutors decided not to charge him for the actual killing after they determined that he acted in a lawful manner in defense of his cousin Keith Bender. Moments before Proof was shot by Etheridge, he had drawn a gun on Bender, with whom he had been arguing, and shot him in the face. Bender later died of his wounds. Etheridge spent several days in jail back in April after he turned himself in, resulting in the sentence of time served.