Florida authorities on Monday announced the arrest of three suspects in the June slaying of rapper Foolio — and two who remain at large — who were all charged with murder.
The slaying was feuled by an ongoing feud between rival gangs, according to a statement from Tampa police.
The Jacksonville rapper, whose real name is Charles Jones, was fatally shot in the early morning June 23 in a parking lot of an uptown Tampa hotel. When police arrived there, they found two vehicles that had been shot at in the parking lot.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Offic e said on Monday in a post on social media there were three arrests in the case on 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, according to police.
Gathright is charged with two counts of premeditated murder with a firearm, three counts of attempted premeditated murder in the first degree 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 if the two are related.
On the day of Jones’ slaying, 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 cell phone. After using the phone, a second suspect vehicle arrived at each location, police said. Both vehicles then followed Jones to the hotel, according to police.
At the crime scene, one vehicle drove by the victims’ parked vehicles twice and left, then three armed shooters exited a vehicle and began shooting at Jones’ vehicles, killing Jones and injuring three others, police said.
The shooters were identified by Tampa police as Rashad Murphy, Sean Gathright and Davion Murphy.
Jones was documented by the sheriff’s office to be 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 if the arrested suspects had retained attorneys.
The case is ongoing, according to the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office 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,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Walters said in a social-media statement.
State Attorney Susan Lopez said in a press 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.”
Two suspects remain at large. The suspects and victim are members of rival Jacksonville gangs and the suspects conspired to commit the murder in Tampa, according to police, NBC affiliate First Coast News in Jacksonville reported.
Jones was celebrating his birthday the night of his fatal shooting, according to footage he posted on his Instagram story. The 26-year-old rapper 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 the Airbnb.
His lawyer, Lewis Fusco, had written in a statement that Jones then relocated to a Holiday Inn, where he was reportedly ambushed in the parking lot. In April, when announcing the release of his latest album, “Resurrection,” Jones also posted that he had already survived “MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE.”
The artist had been making music since 2015.
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