Hip-Hop Figure Killed After He Chased Tow Truck

The tow truck came yesterday in the dead of night, neighbors and police said, snatching music producer Raymond Brown's Chrysler 300 from outside the home he and his new wife shared on a cul-de-sac in Prince George's County.

As the truck sped away at about 2:30 a.m., Brown could not have missed the commotion, neighbors said. His car alarm blared, and one end of the vehicle -- a model favored by hip-hop trendsetters -- scraped noisily along Stillwater Place.

Brown, known professionally as Scottie Beats, lit out of the home, jumped into a second car and went after the truck, police said. Moments later, they said, as he confronted the person or people who were towing his car, Brown, 36, was fatally shot.

Yesterday, as residents struggled to understand the violence that had come to the Lake Arbor neighborhood in Mitchellville, word spread through the Washington music community that one of its members had been killed.

"He was the man," said local radio personality DJ Flexx, of WPGC (95.5 FM). "He understood all the music in D.C., from go-go to hip-hop. He was one of the best studio engineers in the area. Everybody wanted him on their projects because they knew if he worked on it, it would be special."

The deejay said he closes his own program every night with a song Brown produced for the Critical Condition Band and the civic organization Peaceoholics, a tune called "Stop the Violence in the Street." Ronald L. Moten, a co-founder of that group, which runs a mentoring program for children in the city, said Brown was popular in the industry.

"This is going to be devastating to the go-go community and the music business," Moten said. "Everybody knows him."

Brown was an engineer at Night Flight Recording Studios in Fort Washington. He is credited as a producer on the CD "Crunk Juice" by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz and as an engineer on "Rebirth" by Jennifer Lopez.

Police said yesterday afternoon that investigators had not determined whether the tow truck operator was attempting to steal Brown's car or to repossess it. They said tow trucks have been used to steal vehicles, but the practice is not widespread.

At this point, Prince George's police Maj. Michael Blow said, "anything is possible."

Brown's car was found about 9 a.m. at a location police would only say was in the county. They asked for help in locating the tow truck. Police Capt. Dwayne Preston described it as a black crane-type truck, rather than a flatbed, with either white or red lettering.

Two neighbors said in an interview that they saw the tow truck circling the neighborhood minutes before the shooting, apparently working in concert with a second vehicle, a Cadillac. They said the tow truck lowered its crane and then backed quickly down Stillwater Place, pulling out just as quickly even though the Chrysler was not properly secured.