Rapper Offset Shot Outside Florida Casino, Lil TJay Arrested

Hollywood, Florida, outside a packed. casino, the rapper Offset was shot. We. have video claiming to show the moments. before and the chaos right after. What. happens in between? That's still. missing. And the one suspect who was. charged, only hit with a misdemeanor? So, if he didn't pull the trigger, who. did? And why are investigators still. looking for more people? Welcome to. Sidebar, presented by Law&Crime. I'm. Jesse Weber.

Hollywood, Florida. It's about 20. minutes north of Miami. Late at night, outside the Seminole Hard Rock Casino. I've been there before. It's a great. property. The valet area is packed, cars. pulling in, lights everywhere, people. moving in and out. It's what you expect. for a property like that. And in the. middle of all that, the rapper Offset is. reportedly shot. He's expected to. survive. That's the good news, but he. was shot. And the details of what led up. to that moment, very, very strange,

very, very confusing. There's video. right now that's circulating from this. Instagram account. It's called Only in. Dade. And I want to be very clear here. This account claims these clips capture. some of the critical moments, but police. have not confirmed their authenticity, okay? So, just think about it as we talk. about it. Now, here you can see who. appears to be Offset standing in the. hotel area. Unsure exactly what part of. the hotel. Nothing looks out of the. ordinary. He's just appears to be. standing there. No obvious tension, no.

clear sign of what's about to happen. But then you have this other video, taken moments later. Chaos. Someone is on the ground. Another. person's being pulled away. The police. lights flood the entire scene. So, the. question becomes, what happened in. between those moments? Because that gap, that's where this story really begins. Now, police did make an arrest, okay? The rapper, Lil Tjay, was taken into. custody, booked into the Broward County. Jail. But this is the part that doesn't.

maybe add up for you. You might say, "Oh. my gosh, he was arrested. He's probably. involved in the shooting, right?" No, no, no, no. He was charged right now with disorderly. conduct. That's a misdemeanor. So. essentially, he seems to be accused of. being involved in an altercation, maybe. a fight that happened before the. shooting. So again, not attempted. murder, not a weapons charge. If he. wasn't the one who pulled the trigger, then who did? And there's another layer, and this is kind of hard to ignore. Offset's cousin, Takeoff, was shot and. killed in 2022 in Houston. And since.

then, the rapper Quavo has been publicly. pushing for solutions to gun violence, even sitting down with Kamala Harris to. talk about preventing situations exactly. like this. So when Offset is shot just a. few years later, it naturally raises a. lot of questions. We're not saying. they're connected in any way, but how do. we not talk about both? And I'm going to. bring in retired NYPD Detective David. Sarnie in just a moment to break all. this down, what investigators may be. looking for here. But here's why this. case may actually be a lot more. complicated than it first appears. So.

Monday night, April 6th, around 7:00. p.m., outside the Seminole Hard Rock. Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, here's what police said initially. And. this is a statement that we received. from Gary Bitner. He's the public. information officer for Seminole PD. Quote, "We are aware of an incident that. occurred at a valet area after 7:00 p.m. Monday outside of Seminole Hard Rock. Hollywood that resulted in. non-life-threatening injuries to an. individual who was transported to. Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. Seminole police were on site.

immediately, and the situation was. contained quickly. Two individuals have. been detained by police. The. investigation is ongoing. The site is. secure, and there is no threat to the. public. Operations continue as normal.". So that was their original statement. Two people detained, one person injured, and then the next day, they updated it. We received this. One person has been. charged in connection with the incident. Tione Jayden Merritt has been charged. with disorderly conduct, affray, a. first-degree misdemeanor under Florida. statute 870.01.

The incident began with an affray or. fight. Merritt was booked into the. Broward County Jail late last night. A. second person detained at the scene has. not been charged. The investigation to. identify one or more additional persons. involved in the incident is ongoing. The. injured individual remains at Memorial. Regional Hospital in Hollywood with a. non-life-threatening injury. So, so. Merritt, the rapper Lil Tjay, was booked. into jail seemingly not for shooting. anybody, but for allegedly a fight. And.

this second person that was detained, this person was never charged. We don't. have the identity of this person. But. according to inmate records, Merritt was. being held on $500 bond for the. disorderly conduct charge, plus another. $2,500 bond for a separate traffic. violation, seemingly driving without a. license. The record shows he has since. bonded out on those offenses. Let's go. back to Offset. Real name Kiari Kendrell. Cephus was reportedly shot outside the. casino. As I mentioned before, he was. once married to the singer Cardi B. They.

two share three kids together. She filed. for divorce from Offset back in 2024. But actually, if you go back to Merritt, Lil Tjay, his attorney, a Dawn Florio, put out a statement to her Instagram. account saying Lil Tjay has not been. shot, nor has Lil Tjay been charged with. any shooting, and any reporting to the. contrary is false. We encourage people. to consult trusted news sources and to. verify the accuracy of any reporting. before reflexively sharing or repeating. baseless rumors. So, his lawyer is.

saying flat out he didn't do it. He's. not a part of this. And the charges. seemingly at this point back that up. If. police thought that he pulled the. trigger, he wouldn't have been sitting. on a $500 bond for disorderly conduct, right? So, that leaves the obvious. question, if Lil Tjay was charged with. fighting, not the shooting, then who. actually shot Offset. So, police say. their investigation to identify one or. more additional persons is ongoing. They're still looking for somebody. Now, before I bring in Detective Sarni, I. want to give you some context on Offset. because this isn't the first time that. he's been involved in the middle of a.

chaotic high-profile situation. He is. 1/3 of Migos, so this is the hip-hop. trio that basically changed the sound of. rap in the 2010s. Versace, Bad and. Boujee, Motorsport, just some of the. highlights. But, here's where his. personal life gets just as loud as his. music. When Offset married Cardi B, remember when I said that they got. married, they shared three kids. together, she filed for divorce from. Offset back in 2024, but the two had. actually secretly got married. They wed. secretly in Atlanta back in September of.

2017, and then they announced their. engagement a month later. Little. backwards, but that's how they did it. And look, their relationship reportedly. has been a lot. So, she originally. apparently filed for divorce once in. 2020, called it off, files again in July. 2024, and this time it got ugly. I mean, we covered this on a previous episode of. Sidebar, so I'll just give you the. highlights here, but Cardi B has made. serious allegations against Offset, accusing him of stalking her, harassing. her, even seemingly threatening to kill.

her. Now, Offset never really officially. publicly responded to any of that. His. rep kind of stayed quiet. But, when you. hear that Offset was shot outside a. casino, part of why this story explodes. is because of everything else. that has happened in his life. His. notoriety, how he's been involved in a. lot of public attention. His name. already carries a lot of the weight. It. carries a lot of drama, the headlines, the Cardi B connection. And to be clear, I'm not saying that any of that is. connected to his shooting, but you just.

have to understand his life in that. context. And there's even another layer. here that's heavier. I just got to go. back to Offset's cousin, Takeoff. He was. also a member of Migos, a massive star. November 2022, Take Off was shot and. killed outside a bowling alley in. Houston. He was 28 years old, and that. case is still working its way through. the system. There's a man named Patrick. Clark. He's been charged, maintains his. innocence. His trial scheduled for. November of this year. And since Take. Off's death, the third member of Migos,

Quavo, has been on a mission. He started. the Rocket Foundation in Take Off's. honor. He's committed millions to gun. violence intervention. And on what would. have been Take Off's 30th birthday, Quavo held a summit in Atlanta. And he. sat down with Vice President Kamala. Harris to talk about preventing. shootings exactly like the one that. killed his nephew. So, when Offset gets. shot years later at a casino late at. night, you have this chaos. You can. understand A, how upsetting this is, how. unfortunate this is. And you can also.

understand why people's minds go to. certain places. Again, I'm not saying. any of this is connected, but you have. to put everything into context. And I. want to talk about All right, I want to. bring in retired NYPD Detective Dave. Scharney to talk about this. Dave, good. to see you. Thanks for taking the time. You and I were just talking. We both. have been to this property before. You. know, this is a very public area. When. you've worked shootings, you worked. high-profile cases. I mean, the first. thing that stood out to me, we were. talking about it, is you have a major. rapper who's shot outside a major.

casino, witnesses, cameras everywhere. And yet, they only make They detain two. people. One doesn't get charged as the. least at the time of this recording. And. one is only charged with disorderly. conduct. What does that tell you about. this investigation? Well, thanks for. having me again. Depending on how quick. the police respond to the scene. I know. Seminole Seminole Police Department. handles it. It's a tribal police agency. I don't know how security is working. there. It is the valet area. It could be. crowded, very crowded. Um, there are a lot of questions that come. into play because one of the rappers,

Lil Tjay, is arrested for disorderly. conduct. He's not necessarily arrested. for the shooting. We know that you have. Offset has shot. We don't know who shot. him. We have to hopefully recovered some. some shell casings, but what you have. are video cameras everywhere in that. facility. There's cameras everywhere. So, I guarantee you the detectives that. work in this case are going to backtrack. from the moment that shooting happened. backward and forward on that video. So, that's a bench that's one of the. positive of being at that. where it happened. If I'm understanding.

you correctly, it would be very hard to. have the shooting happen and it not be. captured by surveillance video in some. capacity. But, it does it take time to. go through that footage? Uh it will. because what you have I always talk. about pre and post event. You have the. event. Now, you look at the post, which. is after and see what you have there and. look at the pre. So, you're going to try. to track everything that Offset and. little TJ was at that time because from. my understanding that TJ little TJ and. Offset aren't friends.

So, why are they there the same time? That's something we'll have to look at. as that investigation goes forward. They. both have attorneys. So, they both have. to go through their lawyers. So, you're. going to have to work this investigation. primarily through the forensic evidence. and evidence such as video can video can. the cameras along with also any witness. statement that you have there. What about. camera footage from cell phones nearby? You know, I mean I there I've talked. about the beginning there's this. footage from this one account we. couldn't we can't verify police haven't. verified it. But, how do police go about.

looking for everybody's cell phone. footage? Are they able to track down the. people that were in the casino? Are they. able to get their cell phone footage? Do. they need a warrant to get that footage? Do they ask do they put out a public. request if you have footage of that, please send it to us? How does it work? Well, there'll be a number of ways. One. would be requesting video footage of. what you have anyone who has video of. that. What you're going to have probably. if any video any video you're going to. get is going to get sent over to social. media. TMZ being one of them is going to. probably get the video before the police.

do. If you have people detained or in. custody, you're going to have to obtain. their phones via and to obtain any. videos from that, you'll need search. warrants. Unless they give consent, that. phone is still their property and to. seize any video evidence, we'll need a. search warrant. But if you get people. who are consenting to do it, that's one. thing. We're going to I guarantee you. also they're going to be scouring the. internet for anyone who's released that. video to any social media forms, be it. X, Instagram, any of those that have. come out with those things or actually. where people will send the videos and.

especially TMZ because they get they. they've financial uh contributions for. that. Do you think that it can be a bit. complicated if we have a situation about. um Offset and I don't know I don't. believe anybody else has been shot at. this time, but whether Offset or. somebody Offset was with would have the. ability to identify who maybe did this. or would they be willing to identify who. maybe did this? Here's the issues.

Anyone who's talked about this, especially with these type of instances, you most most artists who will say this. do not cooperate with the police. They're not wanting to run to the police. to go to the police and tell us what. happened. Uh so you're going to have to. try to get whatever evidence. You may. have someone who's a cooperating. witness, an eyewitness, be it a an. employee at the at the at the at the. casino. That's one way of doing it. I. don't know you're going to get any. cooperation from either side. Sometimes. if Offset really wants to find the. person that did it, he will cooperate. obviously. Um you know, we don't know.

what kind of we don't know the extent of. injuries he have. He's not likely, which. is good. We don't know if any other. people were shot. We don't know how many. shots were fired. That means you do a. hospital canvas. You can make. notification to the hospital if anyone. comes in with a gunshot wound. They're. going to be notifying the police on. that. But as far as cooperation, I have. seen unfortunately many times where we. deal with people who are non-cooperate. non-cooperative and you're going to have. to work on the evidence that you have. available. And that to be clear, that's. not because someone's involved in a. crime or committed a crime. That could.

be for other reasons. It could be I mean. you tell me or you say artist you seen. that happen in the past. Is that because. of reputation? Is that because of. culture? Is that because of personal. reasons, personal experiences? It. doesn't mean that anyone's involved in. anything. It's just that those are some. of the reasons you might see that. Yeah, that's why there's number of factors. that people won't cooperate. They don't. want to be it is reputation thing. You. want to keep your credibility. You don't. want to talk to the police because if. you cooperate with the police, that. means your credibility gets lost. We've. seen hip-hop artists have done that and. they on social media they look they look.

to them negatively. But when you're. looking at these type of things, you. want people to do what's right and then. the reality is that person shot. Now we. don't know what party they were, who. they were at this point. Was it a an. associate of Offset's crew? His friends. are there, his entourage? Was it anyone. little TJ might have been involved in? We don't know. That's why we're going to. try to get the identification. That's. why if you want to get the thing done. quickly, you want to get this shooting. and the the results done correctly. You. want to get the cooperation of of every. participant, especially the victim. And.

by the way, I don't know. Offset might. be fully cooperating. We don't know, but. I'm just trying to think about what. might be happening. behind the scenes, including ballistics. So talk to me about that. How do they. recover? You talked about shell casings. If there is a bullet also that went into. a victim, that went into Offset, are. they able to recover it? Are they able. to match it to a gun? Are they able to. match this to suspects? What's the. process there? Well, now you have a. crime scene. So we have to determine if. it was a through and through, meaning. did that round go through through. everybody part we have. We don't even.

know where the injury took place. To. recover that, depending on the on how. that bullet looks at from the removal of. from Offset's person, you know, will it. be something of value? No, maybe not. But what you're looking for is shell. casing or shell casings. That's why the. video is important. We also have. witnesses. We have to determine how many. shots were fired. So that crime scene. should be retained. And the thing about. the firearm, did the person take the. firearm with them or did we used to call. it a we call it a Brooklyn bouncer in a. sense where the firearm was left at the. scene and someone recovered it. That's.

why the video is going to be very. pertinent to find out how many shots. were done if you don't have witnesses to. tell you and where the gun is or was at. the time of the shooting. So there's a. lot of a lot of things coming into this. It's. it may get resolved quickly based on the. video, but it may not be resolved. quickly because you depend on the. cooperation of the victim and everyone. else around you, witnesses and alike. Mhm. And and talk to me about Lil Tjay. I mean again, uh reportedly arrested, disorderly. conduct, relatively low bond. Um.

so it doesn't appear that police believe. and and you heard the statement from uh. his attorney, they don't believe in any. way he is the trigger person or that. he's involved in the shooting in any. capacity, right? Right. We don't know where he was at the. time of the shooting. We know he was in. the area and the question comes into. play then is why was he in the area. there? I don't know if they relate how. their relationship is. I heard it was. very acrimonious. There's an issue I. believe from I heard on social media. It's a financial thing. I think Lil Tjay. gave him money. We don't know. I mean.

it's social media too. We can't verify. what people are saying. >> Absolutely. There's nothing we can. verify on that. We don't know the. relationship between the two, but we. want to know is why were they there at. the same time? If they have a a friendly. relationship, that would make sense. If. they have an acrimonious relationship, how did one know the other was going to. be there? These are all questions you're. going to actually have hopefully get. answers to when you talk to them or and. or their attorneys. Because it's not I. mean if you're talking about a fight and. then you're talking about a shooting or. excuse me, an alleged fight and then an.

alleged shooting, there has to be or. there seems to be some sort of. connective tissue, right? Right. So. that's why you look for the. pre-incident. See what interactions that. Offset had or anyone he was with prior. to the shooting. Was there something. that happened or did it happen. immediately at that scene? So that's. what you're looking at. You know, you're. dealing with the valley area, so people. coming in and coming out. Could that. have been a crossing of two individuals. coming through that? Could it have been. something that started inside and went. outside? Or did it happen everything. outside? That's why that video is so. pertinent to to this investigation to.

see where actually where did it start? Was there an incident prior into in the. casino or not? Let me go take a step back here. Um. and I mentioned Offset's history. And. I'm you know, I talked about Takeoff. being shot and killed. I talked about um. you know, Quavo talking about holding. these gun violence uh summits. When a shooting like this happens to. someone who is so close to this other. tragedy, are investigators even looking. at that? Are they trying to make. connections? Are you saying that unless.

there's something that pops off, that is. completely slept separate, we're not. even bothering with that? How much do. they look at someone's past and. connections? Well, we always look at the victim the. victimology before and sometimes the the. perpology in a sense. We want to get. some sort of connection some nexus. between the person the victim and the. subject or person perpetrator that was. involved or engaged. We don't know the. the involvement of the person who did. the shooting. We don't know that. But. you know Offset is well known.

You know, obviously he's been out there. He's going through divorce. Whatever's. going on that end is social. You know, will we look at other things about. Offset to see if there's anything. connected to this shooting? That's where. you're going to look for hopefully cell. phone records. anything social media wise that that. somehow knew that these people were. going to be there. Could it have been a. member of Offset's people that were. there that had the shit fired the gun or. someone else? We won't know until that's. why that video is so important because. in chaotic situations you don't always. witnesses, but the eye sees what the eye.

sees and the camera sees what the camera. sees. And the amount of cameras in that. area, especially the valet area, that's. something that's going to be used ex-. extensively to find out who the shooter. was in this case. What is the one thing. that you're looking out for right now. that the rest of us are just not paying. attention to? I always look at the pre. cuz I you look at the pre-incident. Like. what why did it happen at that moment? I'm always thinking. that moment at 7:00 around 7:00 p.m. does that shooting take place? How does.

that happen? Why does it happen? Is it. that you know, meeting of the planets in. a sense they all get together and this. is where it happened or did it start. inside? Was there some incident going on. inside that brought them there? So. that's what we're looking for. So that's. why that I always look at the. pre-incident cuz a post you're looking. for direction of flight. Um. maybe the firearm where it went. But. when you talk about the pre is what. happened? What was the victim doing. prior to this shooting? What was the. victim involved in prior to the. shooting? That's how I look at it. Do you think that this is going to be. resolved relatively soon?

It should be resolved. The issue comes down to it and I can't. ever put a timetable on this because if. you do you try to you try to bias your. investigations. We try to get everything. together. You want to get the totality. of circumstances. All the evidence. together so this way when you develop. probable cause to make that arrest then. you have it. So it may take some time. Video surveillance takes some time to. look at. You're going to have numerous. investigators looking at that. You have. extensive interviews to deal with. Any forensic evidence meaning the. ballistics you have from the firearm if.

it showcases left at the scene. These. are all things that will be taking some. time to get done so you can resolve this. shooting. Dave Sarnoff, thanks for taking the. time. I I always appreciate your insight. on this and what we should be thinking. about, what we should be on the lookout. for. We'll keep a careful eye on it. But. thank you for taking the time, sir. Appreciate it. And thank you very much and stay safe. And that's all we have for you right now. here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so. much for joining us. As always, please. subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your. podcast. You can also check us out at. NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to.

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