Florida authorities on Monday announced the arrests of three suspects in the slaying last month of the rapper Foolio— and said two remain at large — who were all charged with murder.
The slaying was fueled by an ongoing feud between rival gangs, Tampa police said in a statement.
The Jacksonville rapper, whose real name is Charles Jones, was fatally shot early June 23 in a parking lot of an uptown Tampa hotel. Police found two vehicles that had been shot at in the parking lot.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said on social media that there were three arrests Saturday. The suspects were identified as Sean Gathright, 18, Alicia Andrews, 21, and Isaiah Chance Jr., 21.
Andrews and Chance are charged with premeditated first-degree murder with a firearm and conspiracy to commit premeditated first-degree murder with a firearm, police said.
Gathright is charged with two counts of premeditated murder with a firearm, three counts of first-degree attempted premeditated murder with a firearm and tampering with physical evidence, police said.
“They are currently in the Duval County Pre-Trial Detention Center on murder charges, pending transfer to Tampa,” the sheriff’s office said.
The suspects at large are Rashad Murphy, 30, and Davion Murphy, 27, police said. They are each charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder. Police did not specify whether the two are related.
The day Jones was killed, Chance and Andrews tracked down and followed him and his entourage to two separate locations, police said.
At each location, they got out of their vehicle, and Chance used a cellphone, authorities said. After he used the phone, a second suspect vehicle arrived at each location, police said. Both vehicles then followed Jones to the hotel, they said.
At the crime scene, one vehicle drove by the victims’ parked vehicles twice and left, then three shooters exited a vehicle and began shooting at Jones’ vehicles, killing Jones and injuring three other people, police said.
Tampa police identified the suspects as Rashad Murphy, Sean Gathright and Davion Murphy.
The sheriff’s office documented Jones as a “6 Block” gang member in Jacksonville. The gang has a feud with the gangs “ATK” and “1200.” Chance is an ATK member, Rashad Murphy is a 1200 member, and Davion Murphy is a 1200 associate, police said.
“The feud between 6 Block and its rival gangs, ATK and 1200, has spanned over a decade with dozens of murders by and against both sides,” police said.
It was not immediately clear Monday afternoon whether the arrested suspects had retained attorneys.
The case is ongoing, said the sheriff’s office, which posted video of the three suspects’ arrests.
“There’s no place you’ll be able to hide if you commit crime in Jacksonville or any other city in the state of Florida,” Sheriff T.K. Walters said in a social media statement.
State Attorney Susan Lopez said at a news conference Monday afternoon: “All five of these defendants are facing life in the Florida State Prison, even the ones who didn’t pull the trigger. In Florida, if you participate in the planning of a murder, you can be held accountable for the person’s death, and that is what we intend to do here.”
She continued, “It is clear that they all had one purpose in coming to Tampa, and that was to kill.”
Lopez reminded the public about the emotional toll homicides have on victims’ families.
“His fans knew him as ‘Julio Foolio,’ but to his mom, he’s Charles. We’re fighting to make sure that she gets justice,” she said.
Jones, 26, was celebrating his birthday the night he was killed, according to video he posted on his Instagram story. He had 1 million followers on the platform. He shared a video advertising a pool party and told his followers to direct-message him for the address.
Later that night, he posted that police had “shut us down and kicked us out” of their Airbnb rental.
His lawyer, Lewis Fusco, had written in a statement that Jones relocated to a Holiday Inn, where he was reportedly ambushed in the parking lot. In April, announcing the release of his latest album, “Resurrection,” Jones also posted that he had already survived “MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE.”
He had been making music since 2015.
Source:nbcnews.com
