Rapper Lil Durk charged with orchestrating 2022 killing

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP):

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 August 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.

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.

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 on Friday to emails seeking comment.

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 August 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.

Also on 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.

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 them 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 fully automatic 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 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.

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 that flight.

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