Rapper Julio Foolio was killed in a Sunday morning shooting outside a Tampa, Florida, hotel.
The rapper, whose legal name is Charles Jones, had been out celebrating his 26th birthday at locations he had publicly announced on socially media before he and three others were shot in a parking lot.
Tampa police say they received a 911 call for a shooting at a Hilton hotel address around 4:40 a.m., and found two vehicles that had been shot at. Four people were injured in the shooting, and three are in stable condition and being treated in hospital, according to police.
Police say the man who was fatally shot is believed to be Jones, but that positive identification is pending confirmation from the medical examiner.
The rapper’s lawyer, Lewis Fusco, confirmed to local news station WTSP that Jones was shot and killed. Fusco said Jones was celebrating his birthday at an Airbnb rental but was asked to leave because there were too many people at the residence, and that he then went to the Holiday Inn where he was ambushed.
Jones, who has 1.1 million Instagram followers, posted on his Instagram account on June 14 that he was planning a June 21 “air bnb pool party,” and invited followers to message him for the address. In the same post, he wrote that his birthday weekend would continue the next day at a strip club called Teasers.
In a post made several months earlier, Jones had claimed there had already been “multiple attempts” on his life. He had also talked about being shot in the foot, and posted images of himself in a foot cast.
Police say they are investigating what led up to the shooting and working to identify suspects.
