Courts

Drama At Federal Courthouse: Knife-Wielding Man Shot

The shooting took place outside while a trial about a Katy Perry song took center stage inside the courthouse.

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On Tuesday, a man brandishing a knife outside of a federal courthouse in Los Angeles was shot by a security officer. The man was shot in the hand and, as reported by KTLA, is expected to make a full recovery.

Authorities say the officer shot the suspect after he approached the officer with a weapon and an altercation ensued. The knife was recovered at the scene and two men were taken into custody.

Also going on in the courthouse at the time of the shooting was testimony in the copyright case that accuses songwriter Dr. Luke, aka Lukasz Gottwald, and singer Katy Perry of ripping off Christian rap artists when writing the hit “Dark Horse.” Marcus Gray, aka Flame, Emanuel Lambert, aka D.A. Truth, and Chike Ojukwu claim their 2008 song “Joyful Noise” was used as the basis of the Perry hit. In testimony, Dr. Luke denied the claim, saying he’d never heard of the Christian rappers or their song before the lawsuit. As reported by Law360:

“Dark Horse” started as a simple, catchy instrumental beat created by producer and songwriter Henry Walter, known as Cirkut, Luke said. The eight-note melodic phrase beginning with four C notes and two B notes is actually so simple, he said, that it’s essentially made up of the building blocks of music.

“It’d be like trying to write a book without using words like ‘the,’ ‘and’ or ‘a,'” Luke said in response to the plaintiffs’ claim they own the right to that sequence of notes.

Dr. Luke, who works with recording artists like Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, and Pink, said there was a lot of time and effort that went into making “Dark Horse” and “We’re trying to make what we do as great as possible.”

The trial was uninterrupted by the chaos outside the courthouse.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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