Houston police seek witnesses to rapper Takeoff's killing

HOUSTON ( AP ):

Police said they have few leads in the fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff outside a private party at a downtown Houston bowling alley.

Takeoff, whose off-stage name was Kirsnick Khari Ball, formed one-third of the Grammy Award-nominated trio Migos with uncle Quavo and cousin Offset from suburban Atlanta. The 28-year-old rapper was killed early Friday when gunfire erupted and also wounded another man and a woman, according to police Chief Troy Finner.

Most of the 40 people who attended the party at 810 Billiards & Bowling fled when the gunshots rang out, Finner said. That left police asking people to come forward and give statements and videos to investigators on what they saw and heard, even if anonymously, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

At least two people discharged firearms, according to Finner. The two others who were struck by gunfire had non-life-threatening wounds and went to hospitals in private vehicles, he said.

"Let me just ask ... that anyone who has information on the shooter or shooters to provide that information to HPD and let us solve this situation," Turner said at a news conference Tuesday. "Let us bring justice to this family."

Finner said Takeoff was "well respected," and there was "no reason to believe he was involved in anything criminal at the time."

Migos' record label, Quality Control, mourned Takeoff's death in a statement posted on Instragram.

"Senseless violence and a stray bullet has taken another life from this world and we are devastated," the statement said, though police have said nothing about the gunshot being a stray. "Please respect his family and friends as we all continue to process this monumental loss."

The bowling alley is in a three-story Houston retail complex with high-end restaurants and a House of Blues and is near a Four Seasons hotel. Takeoff was pronounced dead at the scene of the 2:30 a.m. shooting. An AP reporter observed a body loaded into a medical examiner's van around 10 a.m., more than seven hours after the shooting.

Security guards in the area heard the shooting but did not see who did it, a police spokesperson said. A spokesperson for 810 Billiards & Bowling said the shooting took place after the alley closed and said the business is cooperating with investigators.

Migos first broke through with the massive hit Versace in 2013. They had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, though Takeoff was not on their multi-week No. 1 hit Bad and Boujee, featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They put out a trilogy of albums called Culture, Culture II and Culture III, with the first two hitting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. They also earned an ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2018 for their streaming success with multi platinum songs like Motorsport (featuring Cardi B and Nicki Minaj), Stir Fry, and Walk It Talk It.

The trio also played a fictional version of themselves on an episode of the hit TV show Atlanta, but the group was not currently together.

Offset, who is married to Cardi B, released a solo album in 2019, while Takeoff and Quavo released the joint album Only Built for Infinity Links last month. Quavo posted links Monday on his Instagram to his and Takeoff's Halloween-themed music video, Messy, along with a video of him and his friends driving around Houston.