Houston police have arrested a man suspected in the Nov. 1 shooting death of Migos rapper Takeoff.
Patrick Xavier Clark, 33, was arrested Thursday night and charged with the slaying of Kirshnik Khari Ball, better known as Atlanta rapper Takeoff, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said Friday during a news conference.
Cameron Joshua, 22, who was arrested separately on Nov. 22, also faces weapons charges in connection with the shooting death.
Finner said that he believed the slain rapper was “definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time,” adding that Clark was in possession of the weapon during the shooting.
“He’s in custody, he’s arrested and he’s charged … Still some work to be done on it,” Finner said at the news conference.
Online court records reviewed Friday by The Times indicated that Clark was being held in jail Friday awaiting a bond hearing. An attorney was not yet listed for him.
Citing court records, TMZ reported Friday that Clark’s bail had been set for $1 million. If released, prosecutors requested that a judge order him to be placed under house arrest and prohibit him from speaking with specific people, including Takeoff’s family, Houston rap mogul J Prince Jr. and his family, as well as professional boxer Shakur Stevenson and anyone at the latter’s place of employment. (Stevenson was among those seen in footage from the scene of the shooting, TMZ said.)
Sgt. Michael Burrow of the department’s homicide division said that video surveillance, cellphone video and audio, as well as physical evidence and shooting reconstruction and ballistic evidence led to Clark’s arrest and the charges against him.
“The investigation is still ongoing. We still have a lot of people that we’re trying to locate and talk to… But I can tell you, to confirm some of the speculation that’s out there: The event was a private party. There was a lucrative dice game that went on at the event. There was an argument that happened afterwards outside the bowling alley, which led to the shooting.”
Burrow said that Takeoff, 28, was neither involved in the dice game nor the argument outside and was not armed.
“He was an innocent bystander,” he said.
“We lost a good man,” Finner added. “Everybody, the hundreds of people that I talked to, spoke of what a great individual he was.”
Joshua was charged Wednesday with illegally having a gun at the time Takeoff was shot, the Associated Press reported. But prosecutors said he is not believed to have fired the weapon. The 22-year-old’s attorney, Christopher Downey, told reporters that he has not seen anything to suggest that his client was involved in Takeoff’s death.
The Atlanta-based hip-hop trio Migos consisted of Takeoff, his uncle Quavo, 31, and his cousin Offset, 30. The Grammy-nominated group is known for hits such as “Walk It Talk It,” “Stir Fry” and “Bad and Boujee.” Takeoff, whose star was on the rise before the shooting, had been characterized as the “peaceful” and “chill” member of the act.
TMZ previously reported that Takeoff and Quavo were playing dice at a private party at 810 Billiards & Bowling on Nov. 1 when an altercation broke out and someone opened fire around 2:30 a.m. Police said that the hip-hop star was dead on arrival and that two other people were also injured and taken to hospitals in private vehicles.
The Harris County medical examiner ruled the death of Takeoff a homicide days after the shooting. The “T-Shirt” rapper died of “penetrating gunshot wounds of head and torso into arm,” according to a preliminary autopsy report reviewed by The Times.
After a star-studded funeral in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena last month, both Quavo and Offset paid tribute to Takeoff on social media and shared their personal grief with the public.
Early Friday morning, Offset performed for the first time since Takeoff’s death, taking the stage at Miami club E11EVEN to kick off Art Basel weekend. The “Atlanta” guest star told the crowd “We’re doing this for my brother,” according to Page Six. “For Takeoff, let’s do this s—.”
