King Von is dead at the age of 26 following a shooting involving police in Georgia, TMZ reports.
TMZ cites sources as saying 3 people, including King Von, were killed in the shooting. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the incident occurred outside a nightclub in downtown Atlanta early Friday morning. Reporters Chelsea Prince and John Spink noted that "several others" were injured. TMZ put the number of people shot at 6. One person was said to have been struck by a vehicle when the crowd outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge started to scatter, AJC reports.
The report also noted that local authorities had been called to the club twice over a 24-hour period to investigate shootings, though there is zero evidence the two incidents are related. During the early Friday morning shooting, two off-duty cops who were working security are said to have tried to intervene, ultimately exchanging gunfire with as-yet-unidentified individuals.
"That physical altercation escalated into an exchange of gunfire with those groups," Atlanta police Deputy Chief Timothy Peek said. "Two police officers who were working at that particular club, or lounge, noticed the altercation and engaged some of the people involved. There was an exchange of gunfire with police as well."
The GA Bureau of Investigation has been enlisted to investigate.
Later, social media posts from Calboy, Chopsquad DJ, and more appeared to confirm King Von had died. Von's manager was quoted as saying that Von had been shot and did not survive.
Just received tragic confirmation.
Rest in peace, King Von.
Gone way too soon.
🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿 pic.twitter.com/VUwldNU4WG
When reached by Complex for comment, a rep for the Atlanta Police Department said they could not confirm the identities of anyone involved in the shooting until next-of-kin notifications had been confirmed. The APD also offered this statement:
On Friday November 6, 2020 at around 3:20am two off-duty Atlanta police officers were working an extra job at Monaco Hookah Lounge 255 Trinity Av SW. The officers were in uniform and a marked APD vehicle with its blue lights activated for visibility was parked nearby. The officers were outside the lounge when two groups of males started to argue with each other. The argument quickly escalated to gunfire between the two groups. One of the off-duty officers, along with an on-duty Atlanta police officer who was patrolling nearby, confronted the shooters and shots were fired during the encounter. Three suspects were located on-scene with gunshot wounds and were transported to the hospital by EMS. Three other suspects left the scene and were taken to the hospital by private vehicles. Two additional suspects were detained on scene.
In another statement shared with Complex on Friday afternoon, an APD rep provided additional details on the shooting, including word that their investigation thus far leads them to believe that King Von was shot during the initial incident and not by police:
It is our understanding Dayvon Bennett, aka King Von was shot and killed during this morning’s shooting and we are seeing rumors being spread indicating he was shot and killed by APD officers. At this time, our investigators believe Mr. Bennett was shot during the initial shootout between the two groups of males, prior to police responding and attempting to stop the shooting. Additionally, Mr. Bennett was not located at the scene, but arrived at a hospital shortly after the shooting, via private vehicle. The investigation into this incident remains open and very active.
In October, King Von shared his new album Welcome to O'Block featuring collabs with Lil Durk, Polo G, Fivio Foreign, and more. The 16-track release through Durk's Only the Family label and EMPIRE marked the follow-up to Von's Levon James project, which saw a No. 36 peak on the Billboard 200. Levon James also featured the hit "Took Her to the O," which recently received an acoustic update with producer Einer Bankz.
Following news of Von's death, fans and other artists, like Chance the Rapper, took to social media to mourn the rapper.
And later Friday afternoon, the EMPIRE team shared a statement saying they were "devastated" by Von's untimely death.
RIP.
