YNW Melly mourns friends killed in shooting

Rising rap star YNW Melly is mourning two lifelong friends who were shot in a hail of bullets somewhere in South Florida on Friday and died in the emergency bay of Memorial Hospital Miramar.

“He’s sad, he’s upset, obviously,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Bradford Cohen, who is representing YNW Melly. “Those were his best friends.”

Police don’t know where the gunfire happened that killed Anthony Williams, 21, and Christopher Thomas Jr., 19.

They died from multiple gunshots. Their bodies were still in the Broward County morgue Wednesday, the medical examiner’s office said.

YNW Melly, whose given name is Jemell Demons, is 19 and from the Vero Beach area, as were his dead friends.

In a tweet posted Saturday, the day after the killings, YNW Melly wrote in part, “They Took My Brothers From Me Over Jealousy I know y’all watching over me … and after, they wanna see me break down and stop or in jail or a box...”

Williams and Thomas were last seen alive in Fort Lauderdale on Friday at 3:20 a.m. Police won’t say where the men were.

Seventy-five minutes later they were dead, and detectives don’t yet know what led up to the fatal shootings.

The back window of the Jeep that Sak, as Williams was called, and Juvy, Thomas’ nickname, were riding in was apparently shot out.

“We do believe there were more people in the Jeep,” Miramar Police spokeswoman Tania Rues said Wednesday. “We’re trying to determine where this occurred.”

She said detectives were investigating possible locations in Miami Gardens, Fort Lauderdale and Miramar and places in be-

tween.

“We’re working with other [police] agencies to try and determine if this occurred in their jurisdiction,” Rues said. “Anyone who heard a significant amount of gunfire after 3:20 a.m. on Friday morning, please call Miramar police.”

YNW Melly is considered to be one of the hottest young emerging talents in Florida, with some hip-hop commentators and music publications predicting that he could be the next big thing out of the Sunshine State.

In recent years, Florida has produced big-name hip-hop stars including Miami’s Lil Pump, Broward County exports Kodak Black, the late XXXTentacion and Ski Mask The Slump God, among others. XXXTentacion,, whose given name was Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, lived in Parkland, and was just 20 when he was ambushed and shot dead June 18 outside a Deerfield Beach motorcycle shop.

While not yet break-out famous like those artists, YNW Melly has been steadily building his profile with a distinct but jarring sound that combines sugary, pop-like hooks and melodic singing with hardcore street rapping.

His music describes brutal violence, guns, money and incarceration. The Fader, a prominent music magazine, earlier this year published a story headlined “How YNW Melly turned his pain into beautiful rap ballads.”

On the music streaming platform Spotify, YNW Melly’s single “Murder On My Mind” had over 26 million streams by Wednesday. Another track, “Virtual (Blue Balenciagas),” had over 13 million streams, or listens, also on Spotify.

These are impressive numbers for a relatively new and independent artist. And the music press has taken note of the Treasure Coast native.

“The 19-year-old rapper saunters into the room like his destiny as a successful rapper is preordained and everybody else hasn't caught up yet,” Billboard magazine wrote in an Aug. 21, 2018, article about YNW Melly. “His speech is concise, clipped and hushed, which is in direct contrast to the emotional and melodic force of nature that is his latest mixtape, I AM YOU.”

Cohen, the lawyer, has also represented rappers Kodak Black, Vanilla Ice and DMX. He said he was handling requests from media for interviews with Melly, and said the artist was not available to talk about his friends.

Cohen said YNW Melly is hoping that “police catch whoever is responsible.”

He wouldn’t comment about whether YNW Melly was present during the gunfire.

“We can’t comment about the actual incident, we don’t want to disturb any possible investigation,” Cohen said.

Williams and Thomas had recently moved from the Vero Beach area to Miramar, Rues said.

The night of their deaths, the hospital’s emergency bay became a crime scene, enveloped in yellow tape as detectives gathered evidence from a gray Jeep.

Police also closed a portion of the southbound Interstate 75 exit ramp to Miramar Parkway between Dykes Road and Southwest 172nd Avenue to search for clues.

Miramar Police ask anyone with information about the case to call Broward County Crime Stoppers, at 954-493-8477.