Photos: Broward County Corrections / Alex Markow
Audio By Carbonatix
Three days after controversial SoundCloud rapper XXXTentacion was gunned down outside a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, the Broward Sheriff’s Office has arrested a suspect in the killing.
BSO confirms that just after 7 last night, deputies arrested 22-year-old Dedrick D. Williams in connection with the rapper’s death. Broward court records show Williams was charged yesterday with first-degree murder and grand theft.
In the aftermath of the homicide, police said they suspected the murder of XXXTentacion, whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy, might have been a robbery gone wrong – a suspicion echoed by X’s friends, who told New Times they weren’t aware of any ongoing beefs serious enough to lead to a daylight shooting.
Williams’ arrest seems to confirm the killing was related to a theft.
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The 22-year-old from Pompano Beach has a previous record in Broward. In 2014, when he was just 18, he was charged with grand theft motor vehicle. The same year, he was also charged with aggravated assault with a firearm and battery; an arrest report from the time says he pointed a gun at his girlfriend’s head and threatened to kill her. Prosecutors later dropped the charges in that case.
In the theft case, a judge withheld adjudication but Williams ended up a convicted felon when he twice violated his parole terms in 2016 and 2017, court records show.
In 2017, he was also arrested for possession of cocaine and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon after police searched his Pompano Beach apartment and found a loaded Glock and a baggie full of the drug; those charges were not prosecuted.
XXXTentacion, who rose to musical fame amid a laundry list of serious charges including battering his pregnant girlfriend and tampering with witnesses in the case, was shot in his car just before 4 p.m. Monday as he pulled out of the parking lot at Riva Motorsports in Deerfield Beach. He was rushed to a trauma center but declared dead around 5:30 p.m.
His death stunned music fans around the globe, who have since broken a Spotify streaming record previously held by Taylor Swift.
