A coroner’s jury heard from witnesses to the shooting of James King, a bouncer at the Elks Club, by Albert “Goodkid” Charles.
Palmer Evans, a close friend of King, recalled the sequence of events that had led to the shooting: Charles’s earlier dispute at the club with an unidentified man, King’s attempt to dissuade Charles from entering the club to settle accounts, and Charles’s hostile reply, “What’s it to you?”
Richard Pryor had narrowly escaped himself being a witness to the shooting: he was about to leave the Elks Club that night when King advised him that he should avoid the door, as a man with a shotgun was approaching it.