Rapper Lil Durk arrested on suspicion of murder-for-hire – FBC News

(Source: Reuters)

Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk has been arrested on suspicion of ordering the 2022 murder of a rival as the leader of the Chicago rap group Only the Family, federal prosecutors said.

The arrest took place Thursday near the airport where Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Devontay Banks, was booked on a flight departing from the United States, according to a criminal complaint.

The artist’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for a statement in his defense.

Lil Durk made his first appearance in federal court for the Southern District of Florida on Friday and is expected to be arraigned in Los Angeles federal court in the coming weeks, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. where charges are filed.

Lil Durk, 32, was a suspect previously identified as accomplice 1 in an Oct. 17 indictment of five other suspects charged in the 2022 murder, according to the indictment.

The intended target was a man identified as having tuberculosis whom Lil Durk wanted to kill, prosecutors said.

The five other defendants learned that TB was in Los Angeles, tracked him down there and opened fire, including with a fully automatic weapon, but instead killed their partner, identified as SR, the indictment said.

According to the complaint, an argument occurred in November 2020 at an Atlanta nightclub where one of TB’s employees shot another person and Lil Durk attacked TB in retaliation.

According to the indictment, this was one of the many bounties Lil Durk placed on people he wanted to kill.

Lil Durk won the 2024 Grammy for Best Melodic Rap Performance for “All My Life.” He released his ninth studio album on October 18, according to his social media.