NEW YORK – Police
investigating a deadly shooting at a packed hip-hop concert arrested a
rap artist Thursday, saying surveillance footage showed him stalking
through the venue firing a gun.
Roland Collins, who's from Brooklyn and goes by the stage name Troy
Ave, will face attempted murder and weapons charges, a police spokesman
said.
Four people were shot, one fatally, when a fight started
Wednesday night in a performers' lounge at a Manhattan concert hall
where the star rapper T.I. was scheduled to perform.
The man who died, Ronald McPhatter, was a member of
Collins' entourage and had been there to provide security, according to
his family. Collins, 33, suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, police
said.
An 8-second video clip released by police shows the gunman bursting
through the door of a VIP room in apparent pursuit of another man, who
flees off-screen.
As concertgoers huddle under a counter and clutch each
other, the gunman, who appears to be limping, stops and scans the room
for a moment with his eyes. Then, he spots something, raises his gun and
fires.
There were nearly 1,000 people in the concert hall, Irving
Plaza, when the shooting began. One of the victims, Christopher Vinson,
was shot in the chest on the venue's ground level after a bullet
traveled through the floor, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.
Another bystander, Maggie Heckstall, was shot in the leg, authorities
said.
The circumstances of what prompted the fight were still under investigation.
Police Commissioner William Bratton, in an interview with
WCBS radio, blamed the shootings on "the crazy world of the so-called
rap artists who are basically thugs that basically celebrate the
violence that they live all their lives."
"The music, unfortunately, oftentimes celebrates violence,
celebrates degradation of women, celebrates the drug culture, and it's
unfortunate that as they get fame and fortune that some of them are just
not able to get out of the life, if you will," he said.
That prompted an angry response from McPhatter's relatives
and a city lawmaker, who derided the comments as insensitive and
divisive.
"When white people are doing this violence, I don't hear
the same language being used," said City Councilman Jumaane Williams, a
Brooklyn Democrat who said he had worked on anti-violence initiatives
with McPhatter and his older brother, Shanduke McPhatter, a former gang
member.
The city's mayor, Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, said afterward that he believed Bratton was "talking out of frustration."
"I think it's not really right to see a whole genre through
one eye," he said. "There are some rap artists and folks in the hip-hop
culture doing amazing, good things for the world."
Collins was in custody and couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.
It was unclear if he had an attorney who could comment on the charges
against him. A message left at a phone number listed for him wasn't
immediately returned.
Shanduke McPhatter said his brother "got too much into" the
glamour of the hip-hop scene and it landed him Wednesday night in an
environment where alcohol flowed freely and trouble broke out.
In a post on his Instagram account, rapper T.I., born Clifford
Joseph Harris Jr., sent his condolences to the victims, adding that "our
music is intended to save lives, like it has mine and many others."
Police said there was no evidence connecting T.I. to the
violence, but the incident marks the third time in a decade that
shootings have occurred during or after concerts where the Grammy
Award-winning musician was to perform.
A member of the rapper's entourage was killed and three
others were injured during a gunbattle following a party after a concert
where T.I. performed near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2006. Last March, two
people were shot and injured in a Charlotte, North Carolina, nightclub
where he was to perform.
In 2010, the Atlanta rapper was sentenced to 11 months in prison on federal gun charges.
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