The fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff has Houston police asking for the public’s help identifying who opened fire outside a bowling alley early Tuesday, killing the 28-year-old member of the Grammy-nominated trio Migos and wounding two more people
Takeoff, who went by the name Kirsnick Khari Ball, was one third of the group along with Quavo and Offset. He was shot about 2:30 a.m. local time after an argument broke out among a group of 40 people leaving a private party at the bowling alley, Houston police said.
Police Chief Troy Finner said Takeoff was “well respected” and that investigators are looking for any information that could help them identify the shooters. He said most people fled after the shooting started and asked anyone who knows or has video of what happened.
“I have no reason to believe he was involved in anything criminal at the time,” Finner said of Takeoff.
He said at least two people were shot and the other two people who were hit have non-life threatening injuries. They were taken to hospitals in private vehicles.
No arrests have been announced.
“Let me ask … that anyone who has information about the shooter or shooters please provide that information to the Houston Police Department and that we resolve this situation,” Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a news conference Tuesday in the afternoon. “Let’s get this family justice.”
From left to right, Quavo, Offset and Takeoff of Migos are pictured Feb. 19 in Cleveland during NBA All-Star Weekend. (Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)
Police responded to reports of a shooting at 810 Billiards & Bowling, which is located in a three-story downtown Houston shopping complex that includes high-end restaurants, a House of Blues and is adjacent to a hotel Four Seasons. Takeoff was pronounced dead at the scene.
Houston police Lt. Ronnie Willkens said he appeared to have been shot in the head or neck.
Security guards who were in the area heard the shooting but did not see who fired it, Willkens said.
A spokesman for 810 Billiards & Bowling said the shooting happened after the alley was closed and said the business is cooperating with investigators.
“Another good person gone too soon”
Several fans gathered across the street from the bowling alley. Isaiah Lopez, 24, said he rushed downstairs from his home in the Houston suburb of Humble after learning Takeoff had been killed.
“It was one of our favorites, mine and my brother’s. It’s all we heard,” Lopez said as she carried a dozen roses she hoped to place near the scene of the shooting. “As soon as my brother called me and said, ‘The takeoff is gone,’ I had to come here and pay my respects.”
Thomas Moreno, 30, lives about five minutes from the scene of the shooting. He said he had met Takeoff at an event at a bar and restaurant in Houston in June and called him “a really nice guy.”
“I think he’s another good person gone too soon,” Moreno said. “That happens every day, but it hurts even more when it’s someone so talented and so young.”
Takeoff was the youngest member of Migos, the suburban Atlanta rap trio that also featured his uncle Quavo and cousin Offset. They first broke through with the smash hit Versace in 2013.
The group had four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, although Takeoff was not on their multi-week No. 1 hit Bad and Boujee, featuring Lil Uzi Vert. They released a trilogy of albums called Culture, Culture II and Culture III, with the first two albums reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. They also won an ASCAP Vanguard Award in 2018, for their streaming success with multi-platinum songs such as Motorsport (featuring Cardi B and Nicki Minaj), Stir Fry and Walk It Talk It.
The trio also played a fictional version of themselves in an episode of the hit TV show Atlanta, but the group was not together at the time.
Offset, who is married to Cardi B, released a solo album in 2019, while Takeoff and Quavo released a joint album, Only Built for Infinity Links, last month. Quavo posted links to his and Takeoff’s Halloween-themed music video, Messy, on his Instagram on Monday, along with a video of him and his friends driving around Houston.
Fellow artists cry, share messages online
“I lost more than a brother today. My twin, my best friend everything,” fellow rapper Rich the Kid, a frequent Takeoff collaborator, wrote on Instagram.
“The most humble person I know, I used to share shoes and clothes before I did it without any problems… I can’t stop crying, I love you so much bro forever.”
Fellow rapper Ugly God also applauded Takeoff’s talent, writing in a post on Twitter that Migos “changed the whole cadence of rap when they came out.”
Broadcaster BET tweeted “Unparalleled flow. Undeniable talent” as it paid tribute to Takeoff, while journalist and author Jemele Hill remembered the deaths of two rap stars, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious BIG.
I was in college when Biggie and ‘Pac were killed and I thought there was no way I would ever experience anything remotely close to that again. Now it happens so often that you barely have time to recover before someone else kills. RIP Take off.
—@jemelehill
Bernice King, executive director of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and daughter of the late civil rights leader, also mourned Takeoff’s death on Twitter, before calling for social changes to reduce similar violence in the future.
“I’m sorry that such frivolous violence ended your life… We have a lot of work to do to transform the culture of violence into a culture of community awareness and care,” he wrote.