Man arrested in gunfight at vigil was on bail, parole
Twenty-four-year-old rapper has been incarcerated or under probation since he was 18
Gaddiel Ledinek was sick of being locked up.
So he urged several associates to pressure a co-accused to take the blame in his gun possession case. But the cops had bugged the phones. And so, in February, Ledinek pleaded guilty to attempt to obstruct justice.
He was supposed to be sentenced last week, but his lawyer asked for a postponement. That’s because the 24-yearold is recovering from a gunshot wound received late on June 9 when mass gunfire erupted at an outdoor vigil for Dimarjio Jenkins, a popular underground Toronto rapper known as Houdini.
On Thursday, police plan to announce Ledinek was one of several men who allegedly shot indiscriminately toward Highway 401 after unknown gunmen pulled onto the shoulder and opened fire on the outdoor memorial for Jenkins, who was gunned down in the middle of the afternoon last month in downtown Toronto.
Police believe Ledinek, himself a wellknown underground rapper, was most likely hit by “friendly fire,” because the gunmen on the highway had already fled. Ledinek walked into a hospital with a bullet wound in his abdomen and was arrested and charged with firearms offences soon after. Toronto police did not release his name at the time, citing the ongoing investigation. The Star has independently confirmed his arrest. A second man, also injured in the gunfire, was also arrested.
At the time, Ledinek had a week left in his parole in the initial gun case and was on bail waiting on his sentence for the attempt to obstruct justice. He remains behind bars.
Ledinek, who performed as G.D., is just the latest Toronto rapper to be swept up in a wave of violence that has sparked fear and pleas for calm inside the city’s hip hop community. At least 20 underground Toronto rappers have been fatally shot in the past decade, nine in the last year.
Most of these murders remained unsolved, so there have been few opportunities for the public to know why so many young men are being killed. But police and prosecutors — and some within the community — blame much of the violence on the gang activity and street feuds that are often referenced in the rappers’ music. So who is Ledinek? His lawyer, Adele Monaco, told the Star on Wednesday she has “no knowledge of him being involved in any gangs.” She added she has not received disclosure on Ledinek’s most recent charges, so was unable to comment on any allegations related to the vigil shooting.
(On Thursday, Toronto police Supt. Steve Watts, of the organized crime unit, is expected to release surveillance video from that evening that shows several armed vigil goers blasting their weapons toward the highway. Video of the incident was previously published by other media; it is not possible to recognize Ledinek in that footage.)
As a rapper, Ledinek notably featured on one of Toronto’s most popular independent rap songs of recent years. The 2015 song “Wass Gang,” which has nearly six million views on YouTube, also helped launch the careers of fellow musicians Quinton Gardner, known as Pressa, and Liban Randall, who performs as Robin Banks.
Ledinek, like Jenkins, Gardner and Randall, performed with a music collective based in Toronto’s impoverished Driftwood neighbourhood, on the north side of Jane and Finch.
Including Jenkins, four rappers who made music with the collective have been shot dead since December.
In April 2017, Randall was shot nine times in an ambush outside a Vaughan hookah lounge and left paralyzed from the neck down. Two men were convicted of attempted murder in that shooting last fall in Newmarket and are currently serving lengthy prison sentences.
Months earlier, in February of that year, Ledinek was in jail and chatting on bugged phone lines to associates, including Randall, about music and other neighbourhood gossip.
During the intercepted call, which is detailed in an agreed statement of facts filed with Superior Court at his guilty plea in February, Ledinek asked Randall to get the word out to his co-accused that he had better plead guilty to possessing a gun, so that Ledinek could get out of jail and “touch road.”
“He has to f---ing call his lawyer before his court date,” Ledinek fumed. “If you just go to court and say you wanna plead, it doesn’t f---ing work like that. You have to call … ahead of time and make them give you a deal, understand?” he said.
“That’s all I want from you guys,” Ledinek continued. “These guys don’t have to deal with me ever again in their whole life. Just do the f---ing … go do this fam, I’ve been in jail for ten months.”
There is no evidence anyone was successfully pressured into pleading to the case as a result of Ledinek’s calls and in early 2018, he admitted to possessing the gun at the centre of his original charges. He ended up serving three years and seven months in custody before being released on parole last September.
Ledinek’s parole was set to expire June 16 — a few days after the vigil shooting.
According to a pre-sentence report submitted in advance of his sentencing on the attempt to obstruct charge, Ledinek was supposed to be living with his girlfriend outside of Toronto, and was prohibited from entering the city except for court dates.
In that report, Ledinek is quoted saying that he did not wish to return to his old Toronto haunts, recognized that returning “will likely result in going back to the lifestyle that brought him into conflict with the legal system,” said the report prepared in March by a probation and parole officer.
The report also noted Ledinek had previously been shot — no details were included — and that he has been incarcerated and/or under adult probation supervision since he was 18.