3 missing rappers were shot in targeted attack: Police

From left: Montoya Givens, 31, Dante Wicker, 31, and Armani Kelly, 27, were shot and killed after their disappearance on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023. (Detroit Police Department)

Three missing rappers whose bodies were found in an abandoned Michigan apartment had been shot multiple times in a targeted attack, police said Tuesday.

Armani Kelly, 27, Montoya Givens, 31, and Dante Wicker, 31, disappeared on Jan. 21 when they were set to perform at a show that was canceled at Lounge 31 in Detroit. Their bodies were found last week in an apartment basement.

“The investigation is continuing and detectives are making progress and we believe we may have determined a motive,” police said in a Tweet on Tuesday, without elaborating.

The investigation also has revealed that this was not a random incident. The investigation is continuing and detectives are making progress and we believe we may have determined a motive. Once more information is developed we will continue to update here. 2/

— MSP Second District (@mspmetrodet) February 7, 2023

Givens’ mother, Catina Fogle, told NBC Detroit affiliate WDIV-TV she didn’t know why someone would target her son. She told the news station he had been trying to get his life back on track after serving a prison sentence for the carjacking of a pastor.

“I have not been watching no news, and I have not been on social media,” she told the station. “All I know is that my son was found in that apartment building and dead. I’m just now hearing about them finding, I guess, two or three people that’s supposed to be involved. I have no clue.”

“What everybody is saying that it’s gang-related, I don’t know if it’s gang-related or not,” she added.

Details about the case were sketchy. Police said the victims’ bodies were found on Feb. 2 in a frigid, rat-infested apartment basement in Highland Park, near Detroit.

Police tracked down Kelly’s car and arrested a 15-year-old who was driving it on Jan. 28, Fox 2 Detroit reported. Police have not called him a person of interest in the murder, the station reported.

Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer told NBC News there were no signs of violence in the car.

“There was no blood or anything of a nature that would lead us to believe they were either transported or murdered in that particular vehicle,” Dwyer told the station.

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