The manager of a young Baltimore rapper gunned down after an anti-violence fundraiser was himself fatally shot less than two weeks later, police said Thursday.
Trayvon Lee, 24, was killed near his home Wednesday evening in what police described as a second “targeted attack.”
Lee, the CEO of YBS records, managed the career of Tyriece “Lor Scoota” Watson, a rising star who was shot in broad daylight on June 25 as he was leaving a “Pray for Peace in These Streets” charity basketball game at Morgan State University.
Police Spokesman T.J. Smith said Watson was shot and killed in response to a non-fatal shooting perpetrated by one of his friends or associates. He said he couldn’t provide details, nor could police “definitively draw a line between yesterday’s murder and Lor Scoota’s murder.”
“Is it ironic? Is it a coincidence? We don’t know the answer to that yet. As investigators are we looking at that? Absolutely,” he said.
The spokesman showed some of his abundant frustration over the city’s homicide rate — 141 so far this year — as he pleaded for help identifying suspects.
“We’re dealing with another young man taken away from his family,” Smith said. “He has a child, and now there’s another fatherless child who will grow up in Baltimore because someone decided to use a gun to take him down. This is a vicious cycle of violence that’s continuing.”
Violence has touched Lee’s family before. Pachino “Chino” Braxton, who has identified himself as Lee’s brother on social media, was shot twice in the head during a drive-by shooting in February on the same block where Lee was killed. He survived the attack.
On Thursday, Braxton addressed Lee directly in an Instagram posting: “I got shot then we lose ya artist @scootaupnext witch was tragic an u played a big part in laying him to rest . . . Then a week later we lost you a great dad who put his son first the city I did so much for an put it all behind had betrayed me.”
Smith cautioned anyone involved in risky behavior to “be careful of the company you keep.”
“You have to understand that if your family member is at risk, so are you by virtue of the behavior they’re involved in,” he said.
