Pop singer Justin Bieber is paying tribute to a rapper friend who was shot dead.
32-year-old Chris King was killed in an alleyway shooting early Saturday morning in Nashville.
A 19-year-old suspect with a prior murder charge, Adrian Cameron, has been identified. He was out on bond and wearing an ankle monitor during the shooting, local news station WTVF reported.
An unidentified 29-year-old victim was also injured in the shooting, which transpired in an alley between Hayes and Church Streets at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday April 20.
King, whose real name is Christopher Cheeks, was with a group of friends when three men unknown to them approached and tried to rob them.
"The 29-year-old victim reported the group was hanging out cordially for some time before the three suspects attempted to rob his group of friends. It was then that he heard gunfire and realized he was struck," Nashville Police said in a statement.
Cheeks was later found in a parking garage of the Hayes Street Hotel and was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
His distraught father, Christopher Cheeks Sr., shared his heartbreak over losing his only child.
"I don't really know how I feel right now. I'm just mad, empty. Feeling like a part of me died with him," he said.
"Senseless violence for a gold chain and you know you don't have to kill them. You could have just robbed them if that's what you're going to do. But why," he said.
The shooting is also painful for the family of 50-year-old Josh Evans, who was found shot and wrapped in trash bags in the Cumberland River in 2021.
The suspect in Evans' murder is Adrian Cameron, the same person accused of killing King. Cameron, who was just 16 when Evans was killed, was inexplicably out on bond before Saturday's shooting in Nashville.
“This has just reopened the whole wound,” Evans' family said of King's murder.
“Maybe if they would have taken him to court and he would be sentenced to be in jail, this kid [King] would be alive making albums,” they added.
Bieber, who was roommates with King years ago, paid tribute to his friend in a heartfelt Instagram post.
“Love you bro. This one hurts. Please keep his family in your prayers,” Bieber posted. “See you in paradise brother.”
