Houston police are looking for witnesses to the murder of rapper Takeoff | National

HOUSTON (AP) – Police say they have several leads in a fatal shooting rapper Takeoff outside a private party at a bowling alley in downtown Houston.

Takeoff, whose off-stage name was Kirsnick Khari Ball, formed one-third of the Grammy-nominated trio Migos with uncle Quavo and cousin Offset from suburban Atlanta. The 28-year-old rapper was killed early Friday morning in a shooting that left another man and a woman wounded, according to Police Chief Troy Finer.

Most of the 40 people attending the party at 810 Billiards & Bowling fled when the shots rang out, Finer said. That has prompted police to ask people to come forward and give statements and videos to investigators about what they saw and heard, even if anonymously, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

At least two people fired firearms, Finer said. Two other gunshot victims suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to hospitals in private vehicles, he said.

“Let me just ask … that anyone who has information about the shooter or shooters please pass that information on to HPD and allow us to resolve this situation,” Turner said at a news conference Tuesday. “Let’s bring justice to this family.”

Finer said Takeoff was “highly respected” and there was “no reason to believe he was involved in anything criminal at the time.”

Migos’ record label, Quality Control, mourned Takeoff’s death in a statement posted on Instagram.

“Senseless violence and a random bullet took another life from this world and we are devastated,” the statement said, although police did not say whether the shooting was a random bullet. “Please respect his family and friends as we all continue to process this monumental loss.”

The bowling alley is located in a three-story Houston shopping complex with upscale restaurants and the House of Blues and adjacent to the Four Seasons Hotel. Uzlyot was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting at 2:30 a.m. An Associated Press reporter spotted the body loaded into a medical examiner’s van about 10 a.m., more than seven hours after the shooting.

Security guards in the area heard gunfire but did not see who fired it, a police spokesman said. A spokesman for 810 Billiards & Bowling said the shooting happened after the alley was closed and said the business is cooperating with the investigation.

A few fans gathered across the street from the bowling alley. Isaiah Lopez, 24, said he rushed from his home in the Houston suburb of Humble after hearing Takeoff had been killed.

“He was one of our favorites, mine and my brother’s. That’s all we would listen to,” Lopez said, carrying a dozen roses he hoped to place near the scene of the shooting. “As soon as my brother called me and said, ‘The takeoff’s on,’ I had to come up here and give credit.”

Thomas Moreno, 30, lives about five minutes from the bowling alley. He said he met Takeoff at an event at a Houston bar and restaurant in June and called him “a real good guy.”

“I feel like it’s just another good person gone too soon,” Moreno said. “It happens every day, but it hurts even more when it’s someone so talented and so young.”

Late Tuesday night, fans set up a memorial with roses, candles and a teddy bear on the first floor of the mall. Yellow crime scene tape still covers the stairs leading to 810 Billiards & Bowling.

The Takeoff killing came as Houston was in the spotlight as the Astros put on the most popular run of the World Series. from 2019.

In addition, crime has become a major political issue in this year’s midterm elections, with many Republicans favoring law and order, while Democrats are trying to balance public safety with calls for criminal justice reform.

In 2020, the number of homicides across the country increased by almost 30% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Violent crime appeared to be down slightly in 2021, but not down to pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest FBI criminal data, although changes to the record meant that the report did not include some of the nation’s largest police departments.

in houston The mayor and police chief acknowledged that concern, noting that the rate of some violent crimes was down from last year. Finer said he wanted to meet with other hip-hop artists to talk about the violence, but he did not say Takeoff’s killing was related to his work in music.

“We all have to come together and make sure no one destroys this industry,” Finer said.

Migos first broke through with the smash hit ‘Versace’ in 2013. They had four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, although Takeoff was absent from their multi-week #1 hit “Bad and Boujee” featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They released a trilogy of albums titled Culture, Culture II, and Culture III, with the first two reaching number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart. They also won an ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2018 for their streaming success with multi-platinum songs like “Motorsport (featuring Cardi B and Nicki Minaj),” “Stir Fry,” and “Walk It Talk It.”

The trio also played a fictional version of themselves in an episode of the popular TV show Atlanta, but the group was not currently together.

Offset, who is married to Cardi B, released a solo album in 2019, while Takeoff and Quavo released a joint album “Made Only for Infinite Links” last month. Quavo posted links to his and Takeoff’s Halloween music video for “Messy” on his Instagram on Monday, along with a video of him and his friends driving around Houston.

Landrum reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.