Sara M Moniuszko
USA TODAY
Published 2:02 p.m. UTC Jun 21, 2018
A suspect has been arrested in connection to rapper XXXTentacion’s death.
Dedrick D. Williams, 22, was arrested by Broward County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday on murder charges, according to a police statement obtained by USA TODAY Thursday. He was taken into custody shortly before 7 p.m. in Pompano Beach.
XXXTentacion, whose real name was Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was ambushed by two suspects as he pulled his electric BMW i8 away from RIVA Motorsports in Deerfield Beach, Fla. (The dealership lists its address as Pompano Beach).
He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:40 p.m. ET Monday.
Bank records revealed that he had withdrawn cash from an ATM that day, possibly with the intention of purchasing a motorcycle.
Since his death, fans have mourned the rapper on the streets and by listening to his music.
On Tuesday night, Nielsen Music revealed that on Monday alone, 33,000 copies of his digital song and album catalog were sold in the hours following his murder outside a Miami-area motorcycle dealership. That’s a jump of 1,603 percent from just one day earlier.
He is also being memorialized on Spotify, which a month earlier had removed his music from playlists, citing a short-lived policy banning the promotion of artists who engage in “hateful conduct.”
At the time of his death, he was facing trial on charges that he beat his pregnant girlfriend, Geneva Ayala. She told The Miami New Times that he had threatened to kill her and her unborn child in early October 2016.
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