Durk tried to leave the country Thursday night but was apprehended in South Florida.
Lil Durk, the Grammy Award-winning rapper, was arrested in Florida on US claims that he paid for the 2022 attempted retaliatory shooting of Quando Rondo at a gas station in Los Angeles, which killed Rondo’s cousin.
According to a Friday FBI document, Durk, 32, is accused of conspiring to commit murder-for-hire in connection with the August 19, 2022, shooting death of Saviay’a Robinson, 24.
According to court documents filed, Durk’s Chicago-based rap collective, “Only the Family,” or “OTF,” has also had five other members jailed, and at least two more could be on the way. According to the FBI, Durk tried to leave the country but was apprehended Thursday night in South Florida.
For his song “All My Life,” which featured J. Cole, Durk—whose real name is Durk Banks—won a Grammy earlier this year for best melodic rap performance. Additionally, he was a featured artist on Drake’s “Laugh Now Cry Later” and has received three nominations.
OTF members “engage in violence, including murder and assault, at the direction of Banks and to maintain their status in OTF,” according to FBI Agent Sarah Corcoran’s affidavit.
Emails for response on Friday were not immediately answered by Durk’s representatives.
The shooting is related to the November 2020 murder of OTF rapper King Von, 26, at an Atlanta nightclub following a confrontation between Von and Rondo, according to Corcoran’s affidavit and other federal court documents. According to the records, Rondo’s friend pulled a revolver and killed Von by shooting him many times. Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, had two successful singles: “Took Her to the O” and “Crazy Story.”
According to the authorities, Durk promised to “pay a bounty” to anyone killed Rondo, whose true name is Tyquian Bowman.
According to Corcoran, a murderous scheme swiftly came together nearly two years later.
Durk’s colleagues discovered that Rondo was lodging in a motel in Los Angeles on August 18, 2022. On that day, Deandre Wilson, Keith Jones, David Lindsey, Asa Houston, and a fifth unidentified suspect used money Durk gave them to fly from Chicago to San Diego and then drive to Los Angeles. “Corcoran said.”
“Don’t book no flights under no names involved with me,” Durk allegedly texted a colleague who was in charge of making the trip arrangements that day. Video evidence, according to Corcoran, shows Durk was lodging at a home in the San Fernando Valley on that particular day.
Kayon Grant had taken a private plane to Los Angeles, where the OTF members met him. According to court documents, Grant, a senior OTF associate, bought the men four ski masks, two luxury vehicles, and hotel suites. Grant allegedly provided weaponry, including one that had been modified into a fully automatic machine pistol, to Jones, Lindsey, and a third unidentified suspect.
The gang allegedly followed Rondo and Robinson the following day as they drove a Cadillac Escalade to a clothes store in West Hollywood, a marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, and finally a gas station across the street from the Beverly Center.
In order for Jones, Lindsey, and the unidentified defendant to ambush Rondo, Houston allegedly parked his vehicle behind the station. According to the indictment and news reports about the shooting, they exited and started shooting, killing Robinson who was outside the Escalade but leaving Rondo unharmed.
According to Corcoran and other records, the suspects then flew home to Chicago from San Diego after speaking with Grant about payment at an In-N-Out hamburger shop. Wilson allegedly thereafter made an undisclosed payment to Lindsey and Jones.
On suspicion of conspiring to commit murder for hire, Grant, Jones, Lindsey, Wilson, and Houston were taken into custody in Chicago on Thursday. For those males in court records, no attorney information was readily available.
Durk scheduled two flights from South Florida airports to Dubai and Switzerland following their detention, according to Corcoran. After that, he reserved a private flight to Italy, but before he could get on it, he was arrested in Miami.
Until they are transferred to Los Angeles, Durk and the other accused are being detained.
Durk and King Von were accused of a drive-by shooting in Atlanta in 2019 that injured a man’s leg. Two years after Von was killed, in 2022, prosecutors decided to discontinue the case against Durk. Durk had denied any role in the matter.
After being spotted with a gun on a Chicago street in 2014, Durk entered a guilty plea to felony aggravated unauthorized use of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm. He avoided going to jail.
Two municipalities in the western suburbs of Chicago recently recognized Durk by announcing their partnership with his nonprofit, the Neighborhood Heroes Foundation.
Andre Harvey, the mayor of Bellwood, which is located 14 miles west of Chicago, posted on the village’s Facebook page last week, “This partnership and collaboration will bring resources and mentoring opportunities to the youth in our community.”
However, the mayor of neighboring Broadview, Katrina Thompson, declared on Friday that she had cut off her relationship with Neighborhood Heroes and revoked the honorary key to the village that Durk had been awarded.
Villagers have “even higher moral and ethical standards of behavior,” even though they acknowledge that Durk and other suspects are considered innocent. On the village’s Facebook page, Thompson added, “And our public partners must also reflect the same uncompromising standards.”
“My top priority as mayor is to safeguard the interests of Broadview and the values of its citizens.”
A phone message was left at Bellwood’s mayor Harvey’s office asking for his response.
