CHICAGO (CBS) — Grammy-winning Chicago rapper Lil Durk has been charged with murder-for-hire and is now in custody.
The FBI said the Englewood neighborhood resident was arrested Thursday evening in South Florida as he tried to flee the country.
Lil Durk – the stage name of Chicago native Durk Devontay Banks – was arrested in Broward County, Florida. Investigators believe he targeted rapper Quando Rondo.
Rondo was the intended target of a shooting in 2022, in which gunfire missed him but killed his cousin, 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson.
The arrest came hours after five people associated with Lil Durk’s music business were also charged in the case. Those other members of Durk’s Chicago rap collective, “Only the Family” or “OTF,” have also been arrested and at least two more arrests may follow, according to court documents filed.
Investigators believe it was in retaliation for the earlier killing of Chicago OTF rapper King Von, who was killed in an early morning shooting outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge in Atlanta, authorities said.
FBI Agent Sarah Corcoran said in her affidavit that OTF members engage in “violence, including murder and assault, at Banks’ direction and to maintain their status within OTF.”
According to Corcoran’s affidavit and other federal court documents, the shooting stems from the Nov. 6, 2020, killing of 26-year-old Von outside the hookah lounge in Atlanta after Von and Rondo got into an argument. Records show that a friend of Rondo pulled a gun and shot Von several times, killing him. Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, had two hit singles, “Crazy Story” and “Took Her to the O.”
Charges against Rondo’s friend in the King Von case were later dropped due to Georgia’s stand-your-ground law.
Authorities say Durk announced he would “pay a bounty” to anyone who killed Rondo, whose real name is Tyquian Bowman.
Nearly two years later, a murder plot quickly emerged, Corcoran wrote.
Durk received the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance for his single “All My Life” with J. Cole, which triumphed over musical luminaries such as Drake, SZA and Doja Cat. Durk has also been nominated three times for a Grammy.
Durk was recently honored by two communities in Chicago’s western suburbs when they announced their partnership with his charity, Neighborhood Heroes Foundation.
“This partnership and collaboration will provide resources and mentoring opportunities to the youth in our community,” Andre Harvey, mayor of Bellwood, 14 miles west of Chicago, said on the village’s Facebook page last week.
But on Friday, Katrina Thompson, the mayor of nearby Broadview, said announced that she had severed ties with Neighborhood Heroes and revoked the honorary key to the village given to Durk.
While acknowledging that Durk and other suspects are presumed innocent, villagers “have even higher moral and ethical standards of behavior. And our public partners must also reflect the same uncompromising standards,” Thompson wrote on the village’s Facebook page. “As mayor, protecting the interests of Broadview and upholding the values of its residents is job number one.”
Bellwood Mayor Andre Harvey said he was surprised to hear of Lil Durk’s arrest, but he isn’t willing to take the key away. He said, “We live in the United States of America where the suspect is innocent until proven guilty.”
Durk’s representatives did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on Friday.
Josh Brasted/FilmMagic
The charges form investigators’ case against Lil Durk
Prosecutors said multiple members of OTF and their associates used two cars to “track, stalk and attempt to kill” Quando Rando at a Los Angeles gas station.
On August 18, 2022, Durk’s associates learned that Rondo was staying at a hotel in Los Angeles. That day, Deandre Wilson, Keith Jones, David Lindsey, Asa Houston and a fifth unnamed suspect flew from Chicago to San Diego and then drove to Los Angeles with money from Durk, Corcoran said.
That day, Durk reportedly texted an employee who arranged the flights: “Do not book flights without a name involved with me.” Corcoran said there is video evidence that Durk was staying at a home in the San Fernando Valley that day.
Once they arrived in Los Angeles, the OTF members met Kayon Grant, who had flown there on a private jet. Grant, a top OTF employee, arranged hotel rooms for the men, bought them four ski masks and purchased two luxury sedans, court records show. Grant allegedly gave Jones, Lindsey and a third unnamed suspect weapons, including a weapon converted into a fully automatic machine gun.
The next day, the group allegedly followed Rondo and Robinson as they drove in a Cadillac Escalade to a marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, a clothing store in West Hollywood and then to a gas station across the street from the Beverly Center.
There, Houston allegedly parked his car behind the station so that Jones, Lindsey and the unnamed defendant could ambush Rondo. They got out and opened fire, killing Robinson, who was standing outside the Escalade, but missing Rondo, the indictment and news reports of the shooting say.
According to the criminal complaint, 18 shots were fired during the shooting at the gas station.
The suspects then went to an In-N-Out hamburger stand where they discussed payment with Grant and then flew from San Diego to Chicago, Corcoran and other documents say. Wilson later allegedly paid Jones and Lindsey an undisclosed amount.
Grant, Jones, Lindsey, Wilson and Houston were arrested Thursday in Chicago on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Information about the attorney was not immediately available for these men in the lawsuits.
After their arrests, Corcoran wrote, Durk booked two flights from South Florida airports: one to Dubai and one to Switzerland. He then booked a private flight to Italy, but was arrested in Miami before he could board that flight.
Durk is officially accused of conspiring to use interstate facilities to commit murder for hire resulting in death. His pre-detention hearing will take place in California, but no date has yet been set.
Durk and the other defendants are being held pending transfer to Los Angeles. During a hearing in federal court in Miami on Friday, a federal prosecutor asked that Banks be held in pretrial detention because he poses a flight risk.
Durk and his attorney, Alex Ubieta, agreed that the next pretrial detention hearing would take place in the Central District of California because the original crime occurred in Los Angeles.
No date had been set for that hearing.
Banks’ father and other supporters attended the hearing. Outside the federal courthouse, they declined to say anything about the charges or the upcoming hearing.
Ubieta said they wanted privacy.
Chicago responds to Lil Durk’s arrest
Chicago radio personality Seandale, of Raw TV Radio on Power 92.3 FM, called the charges against Lil Durk “devastating.” Seandale knew Lil Durk long before he became famous, and was the first to feature Durk on the Chicago airwaves over a decade ago.
“He was very cool, down to earth and humble, and he appreciated the opportunity just to be on the radio,” Seandale said.
Seandale added that it’s hard to watch Durk go from selling out the United Center to a murder plot last Sunday.
“It’s definitely a Willis Tower leap,” Seandale said. “It’s a real fall. It’s a real blow.”
Chicago embraced Durk for his community service and charitable donations. He even contributed $150,000 to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2023 campaign.
When asked whether he would give the money back, the mayor withheld an opinion.
“Right now we have allegations,” Mayor Johnson said Friday. “He has not been tried.”
Yet Durk is named in a civil lawsuit on behalf of the estate of rapper FBG Duck, who was murdered on Oak Street in the Gold Coast while shopping on August 4, 2020. The lawsuit accuses the same OTF crew that led Durk of masterminding the FBG Duck murder.
In January of this year, a jury found six labelmates and friends of Durk guilty of several offences in the murder of FBG Duck, including murder in furtherance of a racketeering scheme – including Charles Liggins, 32; Kenneth Roberson, 30; Christopher Thomas, 24; Marcus Slim, 25; Tacarlos offered, 32; and Ralph Turpin, 34.
Lil Durk has been making headlines for more than a decade for his involvement in the criminal justice system. He was convicted and sent to prison in 2012 on gun charges was arrested the following year for a weapons violation in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.
Lil Durk performed at the United Center in Chicago last Sunday. Three teenagers on their way to the concert were shot during a violent robbery a few blocks from the stadium, and one of them…18 year old Jesse Kendall– was killed.
Lil Durk also performed at Lollapalooza in 2022. He was injured during his set when some pyrotechnic effects exploded in his face.
Quando Rondo posted a video clip honoring his cousin on social media and YouTube hours after the arrest took place. It’s called: ‘Life goes on’.
Eric Henderson contributed to this report.
