Teenage rapper YNT Juan was fatally shot over the weekend in Hartford, Connecticut.
The 17-year-old artist, born Juan Bautista Garcia, was shot dead in a parked car at 258 Martin St. just after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, police officials confirmed to NBC Connecticut and Fox 61.
The rapper had over 25,000 Instagram followers and recently promoted his new remix to Kanye West’s “Power,” which was shared with his 4,000 YouTube subscribers on Aug. 3.
“He was only 17-years-old,” a childhood friend of Garcia told HipHopDX. “He never went live on his Instagram to talk about drama, he only went on there to support his friends or promote his music. [He] didn’t even get to graduate school yet.”
Hartford Police major crime and crime scene divisions are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death.
YNT Juan’s murder is the 25th homicide this year in Hartford. He is among the unsettling list of rappers who have been killed following Chicago rapper King Von’s murder in Nov. 2020.
Last month, Zerail Dijon Rivera, a rapper in the Los Angeles area, was talking with a friend on Instagram Live when he was ambushed in front of viewers and his murder broadcast over the social media network.
Rivera, who performed under the name Indian Red Boy, was killed late July in Hawthorne, theGRIO reported. In a press release, the Hawthorne Police Department said they responded to a shooting call at a multi-level gated apartment complex on South Chadron Avenue to find “a 21-year-old male slumped in the front seat of a vehicle parked in the carport to the rear of the building.”
“He appeared to be suffering from multiple gunshot wounds,” officials added. “Los Angeles County Fire Rescue responded to the location where the male was pronounced deceased.”
Chicago rapper KTS Dre was also fatally shot last month after reportedly being ambushed by multiple gunmen following his release from the Cook County Jail.
theGRIO reported that the 31-year-old artist, born Londre Sylvester, suffered as many as 64 bullet wounds to his head and other parts of his body, police said, per NBC Chicago.
He had just been released from jail and was walking to a vehicle when several suspects “exited two separate vehicles and all began to shoot in Sylvester’s direction, striking him numerous times,” the police report said.
Police believe the local rap star was targeted, per Fox 32. KTS Dre was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A 60-year-old woman who was walking with him at the time of the attack took a bullet to the knee. She was treated at Stroger Hospital. A 30-year-old woman who was walking by as shots rang out suffered a graze wound to her mouth, and was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital, per the report.
This story contains additional reporting from theGRIO’s Biba Adams.
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