According to recent reports, Rae Sremmurd’s half-brother, Michael Sullivan, has been charged with felony first-degree murder for the death of his father, Floyd Sullivan.
As theGrio’s Dawn Onley previously reported, the hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd dealt with an immense family tragedy in early 2020. Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi’s stepfather, Floyd Sullivan, was shot and killed in Mississippi.
At the time of the report, their half-brother, Michael Sullivan, had been detained. Now, it is being reported that Michael Sullivan has been charged with felony first-degree murder with a $100,000 bond.
Read More: Kanye West reportedly worth over $6.6 billion due to Yeezy brand
According to TMZ, a grand jury heard the evidence in January, which led to the first-degree murder indictment. While TMZ reports that this is not a death penalty case, John Weddle (D.A.) revealed that Sullivan can still reportedly face life in prison if he is convicted.
Weddle also confirmed that Floyd Sullivan was shot at least once on January 20, which was when Michael was first detained.
As theGrio reported, Michael Sullivan was detained on a psychiatric hold at the time of the murder. Rae Sremmurd’s mother, Bernadette Walker, opened up to PEOPLE magazine at the time and discussed the risk Michael had been.
She revealed, “I’m not going to say that, ‘Something like this was unexpected…of course even though it wasn’t unexpected, you still don’t expect it. He has threatened me multiple times. This very well could’ve been me. He has shot guns more than once.”
“It was very complicated, they had a very complicated relationship,” she continued at the time. “It was sort of heartbreaking, but I felt like the only hope I had was that Floyd would somehow get through to him. But I think Floyd carried on with his own life and Michael just didn’t understand. It’s very complicated.”
She also revealed to PEOPLE that Michael was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and alluded to him being off his medication. She told the publication, “I don’t want to speculate — it could’ve happened to anybody because Michael really didn’t need a rhyme or reason to do anything,” she said.
“He was aggressive when he was off his meds, so it could’ve been as simple as asking him to do something that could’ve set him off.”
Read More: Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee on Malia Obama: ‘I think we’d get along’
Slim Jxmmi took to his Instagram in January 2021 to honor his stepfather for his 1.4 million followers on the app. He wrote in his caption, “Rip BIG FLOYD We Love and miss you.”
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!