Forgive him. If you can
Rapper Takeoff's alleged killer turned out to be his uncle's manager
A week ago, on November 11, in State Farm Arena there was a funeral for Takeoff, the famous rapper and member of the Atlanta trio Migos, who was brutally shot and killed in a Houston bowling alley on November 1.
There were a lot of celebrities at his funeral: former colleagues from Migos, Drake, Justin Bieber, Cardi B. Only one person close to Take was absent. And it is possible that he wasn't there because he didn't want to attend his victim's funeral. That person is the alleged killer of the 28-year-old Atlanta rapper.
It's confusing that the police still haven't arrested a single suspect in this case. Several people have been named «person of interest» including our suspect. But to this day no work has been done with the evidence. We are correcting this unfortunate oversight.
Disclaimer: I publish this material in order to spread the information about what took place in bowling alley on November 1st. This video material was originally published in Russian.
The possible murderer's name is Migo Bands; or, to be accurate, it's his alias. He is the manager of Quavo, A&R of his label «Huncho Records» and, as he writes in his profile bio, a philanthropist. It could be a bullet from his gun that killed Takeoff. The murder was not intentional, but still the crime can be qualified as manslaughter.
In order to find out the motives for starting the shooting, let's go back to the events of the night of October 31 to November 1. In order to do so, we will use all the evidence that has so far been made publicly available. As much as we may be confused by the fact that footage of Kirshnik lying in a puddle of his own blood is publicly available, it was the presence of video evidence that helped me reconstruct the events of that night.
So on the night of October 31 to November 1, Quavo and his nephew and industry colleague Takeoff arrive at a bowling alley in Houston. There they meet their friends, drink, smoke, and play dice. Around 2 AM, after Quavious loses a dice game, a verbal altercation begins between him and members of the opposing team. TMZ will later post footage of the argument online.
It's impossible to figure out what's being said in the video, as there's a lot of cuss words which is censored. The word «basketball» sounds — according to witnesses, Quavo and his opponents are arguing over who will beat whom in this sporting game. Quavo is in an orange T-shirt, and Takeoff is in a monotone either beige or white one. This is confirmed by a photo of boxer Shakur Stevenson, showing him and Quavo with Takeoff.
As Quavious turns around and begins to walk away, some man with blue shiny shoes, judging by the movement, is punching someone at chest level and above with his fist. It's not Quavo — Quavo is in white shiny shoes. A few moments later the shooting begins: at least 10 shots are heard.
And here is a video from a different angle, which gives much more information about the alleged killer. The video was taken from the side of Quavo. The camera recorded a man wearing a dark blue shirt, black pants, with a dark GoYard bag and a dark blue cap, the color of the shirt. Already at this stage we can roughly determine what person he is. See what his head looks like from the back and what it looks like from the front.
TMZ in its own edit points us to an object in this man's hand at the 14th second. The object looks like a phone and a gun at the same time.
The same words about basketball and the same tone of voice are heard. In the thirtieth second, the man with the gun partially turns his face toward the camera, and we can make out the very same Migo Bands in the image. Compare: the same moustache and beard, the same face shape and the same physique.
At the fortieth second Quavo says: «I don't get down like that!» — presumably adding that he's not going to get into an altercation so as not to hurt somebody («…back and forth… gonna hurt somebody bro…») and walks away from the pile of people past the camera, to the right side. A man in a dark T-shirt with a white print walks away with him — that's not Takeoff.
A second later there is a sound like a gunshot, and at the 51st second we see the same man in the blue T-shirt running forward. He has a gun in his right hand pointing to the left — although it may appear to be his left hand, you can see in the photo that it is somewhat shorter than his left hand should be, extended out to the side. The same person can also be seen in the first video — a figure in a blue shirt and blue cap is raising an arm in which a certain object is very poorly, but still distinguishable.
No other people with guns can be seen on the videos. This does not, however, mean that they were not there at all, but at the moment Migo Bands remains the main suspect — and that’s for a reason.
The result of the shooting is in the following video: we see Takeoff's body, with his hair, in his clothes, lying flat on the floor. We can't see the shots to his abdomen, but we can see something very similar to a puddle of blood near his head. This is only confirmed by the coroner's report that two shots were fired into Kirshnik's body, in the torso and in the head. The prognosis in the case of such localization of the shot is extremely unfavorable: when a person is shot in the head, he dies on the spot.
The question about the motivation of the shooter remains open. Most likely there was the usual outburst of aggression, only this time accompanied by the firing of a hot weapon. The explanation for why the bullet hit Kirshnik's body may be the fact that, as we remember from the video, Quavo stepped to the right side of the camera, but there was no Takeoff with him, but another person. Quavious' nephew, we can assume, remained standing to the left of the camera, and the shots of the man in the blue cap, judging by the video, were directed exactly to the left side.
Against the backdrop of this evidence, it becomes clear why Migo Bands did not show up at the funeral of his client’s nephew. When everyone around you, including witnesses, is pointing at you as guilty of murder, you will avoid contact with the public who are seeing your victim off to his last journey.
Forgive him. If you can.
Of course, Takeoff didn't deserve such a sad outcome. And not just because, according to numerous witness reports, he behaved the quietest of those in attendance — no man deserves to be killed. After the footage flooded the Internet, the public is actively searching for the culprits, the instigators of this verbal conflict – they blame both Quavo and their opponents. The main their argument is that if Quavious had not escalated the conflict, the shooting might not have happened at all. However, how to explain the fact that the shooting was not started by Quavo, but by a person who was at least in a state of affect, is a good question that remains open.
Unfortunately, people do not learn the necessary lessons. I dread to think how many more tragedies and terrorist attacks it will take for blogs to see the point. The root of the problem is the widespread rhetoric of violence, especially in hip-hop. These days, every rapper raps about how he brutalizes his opponents and carries a gun with him every day. Everyone would be better off if it remained just song lyrics, but many act in keeping with the public image.
Masculinity leads to violence not only in music: it is well known how underlying violence is in many of the armed conflicts of recent times. The cure for the incessant killing of rappers is to stop the spread of violent ideas to the masses.
The murders must stop. Stop them today. Everything is up to you. Make that make sense.
Rest easy, Takeoff.
