Connect with us

Lifestyle

Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk is charged in murder-for-hire conspiracy

Published

on

Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk is charged in murder-for-hire conspiracy

Lil Durk poses in the press room with the award for best melodic rap performance for “All My Life” by Lil Durk featuring J. Cole during the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 4 in Los Angeles.

Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Durk has been arrested in Florida on federal charges that he paid for the attempted 2022 revenge killing of rapper Quando Rondo at a Los Angeles gas station, a shooting that resulted in the death of Rondo’s cousin.

Durk, 32, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in the slaying of Saviay’a Robinson, 24, who was gunned down on Aug. 19, 2022, according to an FBI affidavit released Friday.

Five other members of Durk’s Chicago-based rap collective, “Only the Family” or “OTF,” have also been arrested and at least two more arrests may be forthcoming, according to court documents that have been filed. Durk was arrested Thursday night in South Florida as he attempted to flee the country, the FBI says.

Advertisement

Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, won a Grammy earlier this year for Best Melodic Rap Performance for his song “All My Life,” which featured J. Cole. He has also been nominated three times and was a featured performer on Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later.”

Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for Los Angeles, called the shooting “a cold-blooded murder.”

“The shooting occurred in the open, at a gas station at a busy intersection, endangering many others in the area,” Estrada said in a statement. “Violent gun crime of this sort is devastating to our community and we will have zero-tolerance for those who perpetrate such callous acts of violence.”

FBI Agent Sarah Corcoran said in her affidavit that OTF members engage “in violence, including murder and assault, at the direction of Banks and to maintain their status in OTF.”

Durk’s representatives did not immediately respond to emails Friday seeking comment.

Advertisement

According to Corcoran’s affidavit and other federal court records, the shooting stems from the November 2020 slaying of OTF rapper King Von, 26, at an Atlanta nightclub after Von and Rondo got into a fight. Records say a friend of Rondo’s pulled a gun and shot Von several times, killing him. Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, had two hit singles, ″Crazy Story″ and “Took Her to the O.”

Authorities say Durk made it known that he would “pay a bounty” to anyone who killed Rondo, whose real name is Tyquian Bowman.

Almost two years later, a murder plot quickly came together, Corcoran wrote.

On Aug. 18, 2022, Durk’s associates learned that Rondo was staying at a Los Angeles hotel. That day, Deandre Wilson, Keith Jones, David Lindsey, Asa Houston and a fifth unnamed suspect flew from Chicago to San Diego and then drove to Los Angeles using funds provided by Durk, Corcoran said.

That day, Durk allegedly texted an associate arranging the flights, “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.” Corcoran said there is video evidence that Durk was staying at a house in the San Fernando Valley that day.

Advertisement

Once arriving in Los Angeles, the OTF members met Kayon Grant, who had flown there on a private jet. Grant, a top OTF associate, got the men hotel rooms, purchased four ski masks and obtained two luxury sedans, court records say. Grant allegedly gave Jones, Lindsey and a third unnamed suspect guns, including one that had been converted into a machine gun.

The next day, the group allegedly followed Rondo and Robinson as they drove a Cadillac Escalade to a Los Angeles marijuana dispensary, a West Hollywood clothing store and then a gas station across the street from the Beverly Center.

There, Houston allegedly parked his car behind the station so Jones, Lindsey and the unnamed defendant could ambush Rondo. They got out and opened fire, killing Robinson, who was standing outside the Escalade, but missing Rondo, the indictment and news stories about the shooting say.

The suspects then went to an In-N-Out hamburger stand where they discussed payment with Grant and then flew home to Chicago from San Diego, Corcoran and other documents say. Wilson allegedly later paid Jones and Lindsey an undisclosed amount.

Grant, Jones, Lindsey, Wilson and Houston were arrested Thursday in Chicago on conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire charges. No attorney information was immediately available for those men in court records.

Advertisement

After their arrests, Corcoran wrote, Durk booked two flights from South Florida airports — one to Dubai and one to Switzerland. He then booked a private flight to Italy, but was arrested in Miami before he could board it.

Durk and the other defendants are being held pending their transfer to Los Angeles.

In 2019, Durk and King Von were charged in Atlanta with a drive-by shooting that left a man wounded in the leg. Prosecutors dropped the case against Durk in 2022, two years after Von’s slaying. Durk had denied his involvement.

In 2014, Durk pleaded guilty to felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and felony possession of a firearm after he was seen carrying a gun on a Chicago street. He was spared jail time.

Two villages in Chicago’s western suburbs, Bellwood and Broadview, last week honored Durk and announced collaborations with his charity, Neighborhood Heroes Foundation, to provide youth mentors.

Advertisement

But on Friday, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson announced she had severed ties to Neighborhood Heroes and had withdrawn the honorary key to the village given Durk.

While acknowledging that Durk and other suspects are presumed innocent, village residents have “even higher moral and ethical standards of behavior,” Thompson wrote on the village’s Facebook page.

A telephone message seeking comment from Andre Harvey, Bellwood’s mayor, was left at his office.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Lifestyle

Sunday Puzzle: Name the category

Published

on

Sunday Puzzle: Name the category

Sunday Puzzle

NPR


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

NPR

Sunday Puzzle

On-air challenge: Here are names of things that are in certain categories. Take the first two letters and reverse them. Then name something else in the same category that starts with those two letters.

Ex. Dress    Verse    –>   ADDRESS, ADVERSE

  1. Alpha
  2. Germany
  3. Parenthesis
  4. Amos
  5. Osmium
  6. Nationals
  7. Octahedron
  8. Defense
  9. “It Happened One Night”
  10. “Eleanor Rigby”

Last week’s challenge: This week’s challenge comes from listener David Dickerson, of Tucson, Arizona. The city UTICA, NEW YORK, when spelled out, contains 12 letters, all of them different. Think of a well-known U.S. city, that when its name is spelled out, contains 13 letters, all of them different. Your answer doesn’t have to match mine.

Challenge answer: Casper, Wyoming

Winner: John Meissner of Estes Park, Colorado

This week’s challenge: Name a place somewhere on the globe — in two words. Rearrange the letters of the first word to name some animals. The second word in the place name is something those animals sometimes do. What is it?

Advertisement

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it here by Thursday, October 31st, 2024 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: include a phone number where we can reach you.

Continue Reading

Lifestyle

Unpacking the GCC’s Fashion and Beauty Growth Opportunities at Oud Fashion Talks

Published

on

Unpacking the GCC’s Fashion and Beauty Growth Opportunities at Oud Fashion Talks
For its third edition, Oud Fashion Talks welcomed international and regional fashion professionals to Kuwait. Panel talks featured local emerging designers, beauty entrepreneurs, industry-leading content creators and the first public interview from CEO of luxury e-commerce platform Ounass, Khalid Al Tayer, in conversation with BoF’s Imran Amed.
Continue Reading

Lifestyle

A Miami photo exhibit dispels myths about Haitian-American religious traditions

Published

on

A Miami photo exhibit dispels myths about Haitian-American religious traditions

Photographer Woosler Delisfort documents ceremonies from vodou, ifa and santeria traditions actively practiced today

Woosler Delisfort


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Woosler Delisfort

Haitian-Americans have become the targets of disinformation and even hate this political season. Some of this is based on long-standing stereotypes and misunderstanding of their religious beliefs and spiritual practices.

A photo exhibition recently opened in Miami tries to shed some light on faith practices and ceremonies among Haitian-Americans and others that have connections to the Caribbean and Africa. The show, featuring work by photographer Woosler Delisfort, documents some of Miami’s vodou traditions.

The exhibition, “Sanctuary: Our Sacred Place” at HistoryMiami Museum showcases traditions actively practiced by communities throughout South Florida. Delisfort, a Haitian-American photographer who grew up in Little Haiti and was raised Catholic, became fascinated by the many ways people in his community expressed their spirituality. He says, “This is part of my culture. This is part of my tradition.”

Advertisement

Many of the nearly 150 photos in the exhibition focus on ceremonies from vodou, santeria and ifa traditions that have their origins among West Africa’s Yoruba people. All the images were captured in south Florida. He says, “There’s vodou ceremonies happening in Miami Shores, Pembroke Pines, West Miramar, the different places where you never would have thought… there’s ceremonies happening over here.”

Mambos, or priestesses in the vodou tradition circle a central post, a poto mitan

Mambos, or priestesses in the vodou tradition circle a central post, a poto mitan

Woosler Delisfort


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Woosler Delisfort

In the gallery, one of Delisfort’s photos is of a vodou ceremony he attended in the backyard of a home in a Ft. Lauderdale suburb. A dozen women circle a decorated post called a poto mitan. “Most of these women are mambos,” he says. A mambo is a priestess in the vodou tradition. The poto mitan, Delisfort says, “is the charge between, the connection between the earthly world and… the ancestor world.”

Photographer Woosler Delisfort says for some Haitian-Americans,

Photographer Woosler Delisfort says for some Haitian-Americans, “Vodou is a way of life.”

Greg Allen, NPR


hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Greg Allen, NPR

Delisfort says he was always was aware of vodou growing up and had friends and family who took part in its ceremonies and traditions. It’s about spirituality, he says but also about culture. Many who practice vodou he says, are observing Catholics or members of other Christian faiths. “At the end of the day,” he says, “vodou is a way of life. And that’s how most people view it. It’s a way of life.”

Advertisement
An altar, crafted by artist Michelle Murray, pays homage to the orisha, Yemaya

An altar, crafted by artist Michelle Murray, pays homage to the orisha, Yemaya

Greg Allen, NPR


hide caption

toggle caption

Greg Allen, NPR

Advertisement

An altar from the Yoruba ifa tradition is part of the exhibition. It’s covered with sea shells, fruit, flowers and other offerings to Yemaya, an orisha or divine spirit who’s considered the mother and embodies the oceans. It was created by Michelle Murray, a choreographer and ifa practitioner. She says there’s a lot of misunderstanding surrounding ifa, vodou and santeria. “People make it seem magical and mystical and demonized,” she says. “What we’re actually doing is taking care of the Earth and honoring all that comes with that.”

Another part of the exhibition documents a ceremony held on a Miami beach on Juneteenth every year at dawn. The show’s curator, Marie Vickles says practitioners of vodou, ifa and other faiths come together to send out on the water an offering of fruits, vegetables and flowers laid on a flotilla of palm fronds. Vickles says, “As it goes out, it’s meant to commemorate those who did not survive the middle passage, who were lost to the waters.” She says it also honors “those that made it and were able to create a new life here.”

A Catholic San Lazaro Day procession in Hialeah, Florida

A Catholic San Lazaro Day procession in Hialeah, Florida

Woosler Delisfort


hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

Woosler Delisfort

Other faiths and religious practices documented in Delisfort’s exhibition include Catholic San Lazaro Day and Ethiopian Orthodox Holy Week ceremonies, Santeria practices and Day of the Dead altars. They’re ceremonies not always open to outsiders. Delisfort spent years building relationships with religious leaders and practitioners and collaborated with them in this exhibition. Vickles says, “This is a project that not only celebrates spiritual practice, but also is documenting it for history, for the future. So, people can look back and say, ‘Oh, this existed in Miami,’ and hopefully still exists.”

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending