LOS ANGELES • Former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight has filed a lawsuit against Chris Brown saying the R&B star did not hire adequate security at a nightclub where Knight was shot in 2014.

Filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, the suit also accuses the club's owners of failing to hire proper security at the party hosted by Brown, and of allowing at least one armed person into the venue.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, alleges that the club - 1 Oak - should have taken special measures given that events hosted by the Look At Me Now artist had a history of violence.

Brown "was a known gang associate with a history of violence and had a well-documented track record of hosting events and/or parties in which violence frequently erupted", the suit states.

Knight survived gunshot wounds to the abdomen, chest and left forearm at the party and has said he has complications from those injuries, including a blood clot. He has been behind bars since running over two men with his car, killing one, in January last year in Los Angeles.

His lawyers have argued that he did not intend to harm the two men outside a fast-food joint in Compton and was trying to drive away after they attacked him with guns in broad daylight.

In the lawsuit filed on Monday, his lawyers linked the injuries he sustained at the nightclub shooting to the incident in Compton, saying they left him fearing for his life and still recovering.

"Mr Knight was still extremely frail from his gunshot injuries less than five months earlier," attorney J. Tooson wrote in a statement carried by United States media. "When the facts are finally revealed in this case, we're certain it will be apparent that our client was simply trying to flee for his life."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE