Arrest Made in Death of Migos Rapper Takeoff

Houston police arrested a 33-year-old man and charged him with murder in connection with the death of Migos rapper Takeoff.

Patrick Xavier Clark was arrested late Thursday evening in Houston and has since been charged with the murder of the rapper born Kirshnik Khari Ball. Another individual, 22-year-old Cameron Joshua, was arrested in late November and charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon, though he is not believed to have fired the weapon at the time of the shooting.

Houston PD received a call of a shooting on Nov. 1 at about 2:34 a.m. at 810 Billiards and Bowling, which is located near downtown Houston. Officers who arrived on the scene took statements from employees, who said the shooting took place after a private party at the venue had ended. 

According to a report obtained by Rolling Stone from the Harris County Medical Examiner, Bell’s cause of death was listed as “penetrating gunshot wounds” to both his head and his torso.

“I can tell you that takeoff was not involved in playing in the dice game,” Sgt. Michael Burrow shared. “He was not involved in the argument that happened outside. He was not armed. He was an innocent bystander.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner added: “More than an entertainer, he was a son, a brother, a cousin, and a friend and a mentor to those in the music industry. At that time, we also asked witnesses to help police identify Takeoff’s killer and prevent more violence from happening in retaliation. I am glad that I suspect has been arrested and charged with Takeoff’s death. It certainly, I think, will bring some comfort to the family, though it does not bring Takeoff back.”

Burrow mentioned that while there were more than 30 individuals outside of the venue following the shooting, “literally every single one of those people left the scene without giving a statement to police.” Since then, the department has located a number of those individuals, however they request that more come forward to aid in the ongoing investigation.

“Essentially, we had to rely on a large volume of video surveillance evidence that came in and cell phone videos, and audio things that surfaced over time in some cases, that weren’t available immediately,” Burrow added. “We had to sift through all of that and use physical evidence and use shooting reconstruction and confirm a lot of our ballistic evidence of what weapons were involved.”

According to an earlier report from police, the private event, attended by about 40 people, ended around 1 a.m., though the party continued for another hour until it was cleared out. Local news outlet KHOU noted that security guards were in the area when the shooting started but did not see who pulled the trigger. 

“I want to express my regret and disappointment that this was a case of another young man taking the life of another young man for no reason,” Turner added. “The gun violence everywhere – not just in the city of Houston – has to stop. People are dying for little or no reason and people are reaching for deadly firearms to settle sometimes minor disagreements. But pulling the firearm can have deadly consequences that you cannot undo.”

This story is developing