Following the Irving Plaza shooting at a T.I. concert, the rapper is speaking out on Troy Ave, who has been accused of the crime.
The shooting this past May left three people injured and one, bodyguard Ronald McPhatter, dead. McPhatter died from a fatal shot to the stomach and died at Israel Hospital.
“I’m not gonna get into any discussion or details of any criminal case for anybody. That’s what lawyers are for,” the rapper said to TMZ. “I got a lot of love for Troy and I just think he has enormous potential. I know he has his own relationship with God. All he gotta do is keep God first and he’ll pull through.”
The Brooklyn rapper, real name Roland Collins, was first accused of being the shooter when video footage surfaced of him discharging a loaded firearm. It was unclear in the video footage if anyone had been wounded by his gunfire. It was reported by TMZ that when the ballistics were further tested, the bullet removed from McPhatter’s body was not a match to Collin’s gun. This subsequently cleared Collins of the murder charge.
In court, Collins was cleared of any murder charges in the shooting but was still indicted by a grand jury for attempted murder, as well as four counts of criminal possession of a weapon. If Collins is found guilty of these charges, he may face several years in prison, although his lawyer Scott Leemon has continually asserted that the video footage may actually help aid his defense.
