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On June 18, 2018, 20-year-old rapper XXXTentacion was fatally shot in what has been described by prosecutors as a deadly armed robbery.
The rapper's uncle, who was with him at the time of the shooting, provided further details on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, as surveillance video of the shooting went viral across social media.
Trigger warning: This article has a video and details of a fatal shooting. Reader discretion is advised.
In the footage, XXXtentacion can be seen driving his vehicle through a parking lot as he is trailed by a dark SUV that allegedly had the four men charged with his murder.
The SUV can subsequently be seen driving in front of XXXtentacion's car, blocking his. A passenger, identified as the rapper's uncle Leonard Kerr, quickly fled as two of the four men emerge from the SUV and rob the 20-year-old star. After snatching XXXtentacion's Louis Vuitton bag, one of the gunmen fired six shots at the rapper, killing him.
The suspects involved in the shooting and robbery have been identified as Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, Dedrick Williams, and Robert Allen. Michael Boatwright is believed to have fired the fatal shots that killed the young star.
Leonard Kerr's account of XXXtentacion's death
A live stream of the trial was provided by the Law&Crime network, and it had the late rapper's uncle describing the course of the events that led to his death.
Leonard Kerr said that when they got to the exit, they stopped and XXXTentacion looked to one side while Kerr looked at the other. He added:
"By the time [the victim] looked to the left, I see a car coming down the block and blocked the entrance. After the car pulled by the entrance, two persons jump out the side doors. One come on (the victim's side) side, one come on the side that I'm on."
He continued to say that the taller suspect told Kerr not to get out of the car and the other suspect, who was at the rapper's side of the car, asked him to give him the chain.
As per CBS, at the time of the shooting, the 20-year-old was carrying $50,000 in his Louis Vuitton bag. Prosecutors stated that he had picked up the sum to purchase a motorcycle at RIVA Motorsports, a motor vehicle store in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
While investigators explored the possibility that the murder may have been a targeted assassination, the suspects insisted that it was a spontaneous robbery. They said it was spurred after they reportedly recognized the rapper's car.
One of them, identified as Robert Allen, even said that they had masks in their car to rob people.
In August 2022, NBC Miami reported that Allen pleaded guilty to a lesser conviction on second-degree murder charges. In exchange, he is scheduled to testify against his supposed accomplices in the killing.
