Thousands mourn musician
Fans from all over the country show up at BB&T Center
SUNRISE – It was a tearful and poignant scene, as well as a grim reminder of the toll of recent gun violence in Broward County. The body of murdered rapper XXXTentacion lay in a casket on a stage at the BB&T Center.
On the floor of the Sunrise hockey arena stood thousands of fans who lined up to file past the casket.
A six-hour viewing Wednesday gave fans a chance to pay their final respects. The rapper, who had been living in Parkland, was shot dead in broad daylight last week in Deerfield Beach.
Fans traveled from across Florida and the country to be there. Chris Ortiz, 19, and Chris Olayo, 18, flew in from Chicago on Wednesday morning.
“It’s an amazing experience to be here with a lot of people that just want to see him one last time,” Olayo said.
“We were like, ‘Yo, we gotta go,’ ” Ortiz said.
XXXTentacion, whose given name was Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, fused contemporary hiphop with elements of ’90s alternative rock. More recently, he sang emotionally vulnerable songs as much as he rapped with a typical streets-bred bravado.
His memorial came less than a month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduation ceremony took place in the same arena.
Fans cried and embraced one another when his song “Hope” began booming over the speakers. In it, he addresses those who died in the Feb. 14 school shooting.
“Rest in peace to all the kids that lost their lives in the Parkland shooting,” XXXTentacion says at the beginning of the track. “This song is dedicated to you.”
At one point, a young woman threw a necklace into the casket. A security guard escorted her off stage as she cried, while another security guard fished the necklace out.
A video montage of his performances played on two huge screens on the stage and the arena’s giant scoreboard. Arrangements of flowers painted silver adorned the stage. Two large photos of the rapper were on the ends of the stage.
XXXTentacion, known as X to his fans, wore a dark blue denim jacket in the casket. He wore pants that under the bright stage lights appeared to be burgundy. His hair was braided.
Other famous rappers showed up, particularly big-name artists who collaborated with XXXTentacion and knew him both as a musician and friend.
Philadelphia rapper Lil Uzi Vert stood beside the casket, embracing XXXTentacion’s mother, Cleopatra Bernard. Later on, Lil Yachty, a rapper from Atlanta, also stood by the casket with Bernard.
Tiurakh$ushii, a rapper from Lauderhill, couldn’t bring himself to go inside and see the casket. He knew XXXTentacion while the two were growing up and hanging out in Lauderhill’s “Deepside” neighborhood.
“I don’t want to see my boy like that,” Tiurakh$ushii said.
XXXTentacion drew headlines not only for his success, but also for legal problems, including his arrest on charges he beat his girlfriend.
Some said they could forgive the allegations against him. “I know he was on the road to recovery,” said Gage Watkins, an 18-year-old who recalled once seeing the rapper perform.
XXXTentacion’s most recent album, “?”, debuted in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard albums chart when it was released in March. This week, in the days after his death, the “Sad!” song reached No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart.
The killing has so far resulted in one arrest, but detectives say they’re looking for additional suspects and on Wednesday named a person of interest they are hoping to speak with.
During the viewing, XXXTentacion’s image was on a sign outside the BB&T Center. His mother shared a picture of it on Instagram on Wednesday.
“Come out and say your final goodbyes,” Bernard wrote. “He considered you all family and I wanted to do something special for you all.”
Christopher Guaylupo, 30, drove down from Orlando to be at the event. “X was somebody that I looked up to even though he was younger than me,” Guaylupo said. “I went through the same obstacles he did.”
Though the BB&T Center is publicly owned, Broward County wasn’t involved in the viewing, said Alan Cohen, an attorney and assistant county administrator. He said it was a privately funded event.
Though Broward County owns the center, Cohen said the Florida Panthers hockey team are licensed to use it as a private entity. Any arrangements for an event held there are made with the Panthers organization. A spokesman for the Panthers organization said they don’t comment on rates for events held at the center.
There were no speakers during the memorial. Fans went through metal detectors to enter the building.
No phones or cameras were allowed. Once inside the building, fans lined up on the arena floor.
Family and close friends occupied a cordoned-off section in front of the stage, and in the some of the seats of the lower bowl.
Some fans emerged from the arena bawling. Janea Deloach, 20, of Spring Hill, Florida, was one of them.
“I feel like I just relate [to his music] a lot,” she said. “For the times that I felt alone, he was just there.”
Dallas and Cheyenne Roberts, sisters from Ocala, also were crying. “It’s just so unreal,” said Cheyenne, 16. “I still can’t comprehend that it happened.”
“You walk into the room and you could feel the saddest vibe,” said Dallas, 19. “And once you’re up there on the stage and you actually see him, you’re like, it’s real,” she said. “He’s gone.”