A$AP Rocky arrested in Los Angeles in connection with a November shooting

On Wednesday morning, rapper A$AP Rocky was arrested by US authorities at Los Angeles airport when he landed from Barbados after spending a few days on vacation with his partner, the singer Rihanna. The arrest has been confirmed by his lawyer, Alan Jackson, but his representatives have not yet commented on the matter.

The 33-year-old musician, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, was detained by the city’s police department in collaboration with US Immigration and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. His arrest appears to be related to a shooting that took place on the night of November 6, 2021, for which he was under investigation.

The victim survived the shooting. According to NBC, the victim told police that the rapper was walking down the street with two men when he approached him, gun in hand, and shot him “three to four times.” One of the bullets grazed the victim’s left hand. Until now, the incident and the musician’s involvement had been unknown to the public.

Several months earlier, in early September, Rocky’s lawyer, Henrik Olssen Lilja, was shot in Stockholm, Sweden. The lawyer had formed part of the team that defended the musician for an incident that occurred on June 30, 2019, when the rapper and some of his friends got into a fight in the Swedish capital with a 19-year-old boy named Mustafa Jafari. Rocky was arrested and spent a month in a prison in the Nordic country, where he said that he was kept in “inhumane conditions.” Rocky was found guilty, but he was sentenced only to the payment of damages, less than €1,200 ($1,300), because he had already spent time in prison, an experience that he himself described as “very difficult and sobering.” During the rapper’s time in prison, Donald Trump spoke out in his favor.

Rocky began his hip-hop career in the world in 2011, signing with a major record label only a few months after releasing his first music. He has been nominated for two Grammys and has worked with luxury fashion brands including Guess and Calvin Klein. After dating models such as Kendall Jenner and Chanel Iman, he is now in a relationship with Rihanna, who is pregnant with his child and expects to give birth soon.