Four arrested for ambush car park murder of Florida rapper Julio Foolio

Four people have been arrested for the murder of rapper Julio Foolio, who was gunned down in June.

Per The Guardian, police investigating the death of Foolio – real name Charles Jones – arrested three suspects in Florida on Monday (July 29).

Authorities said on Monday that members of two different gangs, named ATK and 1200 respectively, were responsible for the gunfire ambush that killed the 26-year-old musician. The rapper was reportedly out celebrating his birthday in Tampa when it happened.

Last weekend, 18-year-old Sean Gathright, along with 21-year-olds Isaiah Chance and Alicia Andrews were rounded up as suspects and jailed, the Tampa Police Department announced. A fourth, Rashad Murphy, age 30, surrendered after he was tracked down by local police on Tuesday (July 30), footage shared on X (formerly Twitter) shows. A fifth suspect remains at large.

Jones was gunned down in the early hours of the Sunday morning of June 23 in Tampa, just a day after his birthday, his lawyer Lewis Fusco confirmed. Three other victims are also said to be in a stable condition.

In April, after announcing the release of his latest album, ‘Resurrection’, Jones also posted on Instagram that he had already survived “MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE.” The rapper reportedly survived a previous attempt in 2021, when he was grazed by a bullet while at his recording studio in Jacksonville.

Last month, Jones’ mother Sandrikas Mays was interviewed by Newsweek about her son’s murder. “We have to understand that Charles wasn’t getting shot at because he killed somebody, because he robbed somebody, because anything like that,” she said. “That’s not what happened. All this happened because of rapping.”

Mays also revealed that a documentary on the life of Jones will be released in September: “Charles grew up in the church,” she added. “He always was with his grandmother, who passed away as well, on his dad’s side. So we’re going to be highlighting some of the good stuff. We’re going to be highlighting things that happened that people don’t know about.”

Jones’ cousin and three teenagers were killed in a 2018 gang-related shooting during a birthday party for his brother.

Foolio has nearly a million monthly listeners on Spotify, where his top-played track is ‘Voo Doo’.

The post Four arrested for ambush car park murder of Florida rapper Julio Foolio appeared first on NME.