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Subscribe to RSSIn a scene witnesses describe as looking like a Hollywood set, a confrontation between a group of men escalated into a shooting, multiple vehicle pileup, and an exploding taxicab. The incident left three people dead. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
The driver of a Maserati that was shot up early Thursday morning on Las Vegas’ famed Strip, causing the vehicle to crash into a taxi cab and leading to a deadly explosion, was a 27-year-old aspiring rapper, according to his family.
Three people were killed and at least six injured as a result of the 4:30 a.m. shooting and subsequent car crashes in a section of the Strip that includes Caesars Palace, Bally’s and the Bellagio.
The shooting came after the occupants of a Range Rover and the Maserati got into an altercation in the valet area of the Aria hotel and casino, according to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie.
“We have numerous witnesses to this,” Las Vegas Police Sgt. John Sheahan said. “But what is the genesis of this? We don’t know yet.”
A major manhunt is under way for the occupants of the Range Rover.
Kenny “Clutch” Cherry of Oakland, Calif. was at the wheel of the Maserati, his father told NBCBayArea.com on Thursday, when a black Range Rover with tinted windows and black rims pulled up and allegedly opened fire near a stoplight in the pre-dawn hours.
A passenger was injured by the gunfire and Cherry was killed, causing the car to spin out of control. The careening silver Maserati smashed into a taxicab, trapping the passenger and driver and causing the cab to burst into flames; both occupants were killed, police said. Then, the Maserati smashed into three other cars before coming to a stop.
The Maserati driver was a Chico State dropout who had gone to Las Vegas to pursue a rap career, father Kenneth Cherry, Sr., told NBCBayArea.com. He had filmed a music video on the Strip featuring his Maserati just months before. Cherry left behind three children, including a toddler and 2-month-old baby girl.
“I heard there was some sort of disagreement and the guys pulled to the side of him, and rolled their window down, and he rolled his window down,” Cherry said. “They just started shooting. My son for the record did not have any guns in his car. There was no gun battle. Nothing like that.”
Attorney Vicki Greco told Reuters she had represented the deceased Cherry in a civil case and a few traffic issues.
The Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner confirmed Cherry's identity and said he died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
The taxi driver was identified as Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas. His passenger was Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash. Both died of "multiple blunt force injuries," the office said.
All three deaths were classified as homicide.
In Las Vegas, visitors and law enforcement reacted with shock to the violent spectacle. The Strip has seen other recent incidents of violence, including a man who fired a gun inside the Circus Circus casino on New Year’s Eve and a parking garage shooting on Feb. 6.
“We get stabbings and gang violence,” Mark Thompson, a visitor from Manchester, England, told The Associated Press, “but this is like something out of a movie. Like ‘Die Hard’ or something.”
Officers are searching for the Range Rover with paper dealership plates and its male African-American occupants, police said. They are combing through surveillance tape for clues.
“Finding those involved is a top priority for my agency and law enforcement here in southern Nevada,” Sheriff Douglas Gillespie of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told NBC affiliate KSNV.
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This story was originally published on Fri Feb 22, 2013 9:19 AM EST
Leave a Comment:
I wander if he paid his fair share? Sounds like was a 1%er.
These days, when your occupation is "aspiring rapper", you can pretty much guarantee a short life span. The rap game aint what it use to be.
Hard to believe someone would whine about the strip being closed for investigation after 3 people are dead. Judge Chavez from New Mexico - what do you expect to happen? Just scrape the remains off the street and let you get back to your wining, dining and gaming?
yes, its a dead rapper...who cares...
The people in the taxi cab weren't rappers.......and suffered a horrible death too.
Ya pretty much.I mean who cares?
I'm not a fan of anything that has to do with that "culture". Why is it the family of these rappers and thugs always act surprised when stuff like this happens, as if they were all alter boys. No one ever asks how someone can have this much money, this young, probably with no formal secondary (hell, even primary) education. Normal is crazy in that "culture". Visiting your kids/baby daddies/multiple boyfriends in jail is a non event. I hate them all. I'm officially racist (against ghetto culture, not law abiding, educated, self respecting folks) and they are a cancer on our society. I'm sick of folks tip toeing around what really everyone is thinking for fear of getting branded a racist. Give them all guns and hope that they all kill themselves (like in Chicago). Focus on the breeding female trash also. Multiculturalism is a failed experiment. Sorry but I'm tired of the "poor us" BS they spew but never self reflect to see that their culture hasn't changed and has actually gone backwards. Why today's kids want to emulate anything to do with that tacky lifestyle is beyond me. Why would you take the worst in a race and want to be it? Too much singing and dancing in this country and not enough education. Too much freedom and rights. You're all idiots.
althought i agree with you about the pathetic ghetto/gangsta/rapper culture (culture is a very loose term) you screwed up a prefectly good rant with "too much freedom and rights." seriously?! and you're calling other people idiots?
You're probably right... I just got tired and didn't want to explain further.
I know it's always the fake shock and awe that gets me.Oh my son was a good boy and didn't deserve to die.Whatever!!!!!
Isn't being shot at or shot a way rappers enhance their rep. Possibly it was a 'set-up" that went south.
Naa, he just dissed a homie that happen to be packn a lot of heat.
through all these comments not one person even cares that an innocent cab driver and passenger were killed because of these stupid people.......
I think everyone cares about the innocent bystanders BUT this happens so often by the same type of punks what are you going to do. GET some balls,stop complaining about "guns" and address the real issue,BLACKS with guns,BLACK thugs, BLACK violence. Right now everyone is focused on the very rare but tragic events in Conn,Colorado,and Arizona. Handle the larger problem,the smaller ,less frequent problems will go away. I know ,if you put the word BLACK and violence together your viewed as racist so then stop complaining if you can't address the issues.
Gosh, gunowner, you forgot to include the white mass shooters. Obviously, it is not all black people who are a problem. Do we need to clean up problem kids - black, white, Hispanic, etc., yes! But, don't lump all black people in the problem area.
Thought I was pretty clear,address the issue. The liberals(like you) always find ways to side step the real issues in fear of hurting the black populations feelings,I think you call it "politically correct". But I'll bet good money none of you spineless,tough talking, wimps live anywhere near the projects of Chicago,Detroit etc.. ALL you liberals sit on the outskirts of the problem areas and spout your ideas without ever being involved with the problem.ALLPEOPLESRIGHTS (LMAO) you are one of the reasons people are losing their rights,freedom and safety in this country.
White violence, such as Aurora and Newtown seem to be sporadic things, but black violence, and most of it is black on black, seems to be an everyday thing, and they look at it as the way of the hood. Housing projects seem to be the new "slave row", and the level of violence and criminal activity in those places is unbelievable. Whites cant fix it, and blacks dont even want to acknowledge it because it makes them look bad.
I knew it had to be something like this.... KNEW IT! I am really sorry for all involved. You can take the kids out of the ghetto but.......
Amazing how now the truth starts to come out. I think we laws against rap. Look at all the death and misery it's caused.
"we laws against rap" - it that supposed to mean something?
Oops - We all make typos from time to time
I know but what did you mean?
Forgot the need. It should have read, I think we need laws against rap.
Thanks for pointing it out.
no good has ever come from rap "music"...and it's not even music
Neither is Zanfir the pan flutist; whats your point redneck?
Its Zamfir stupid.
Exactly! rap started in Africa and that's a good place for it.
Hank Lucky must be one of these aspiring rappers because his panties are all twisted.
Wow, I got "Zamfir's" name wrong. You must be one of his many gay followers.
Mikebell; I'll leave the panty wearing to you sizzlechest.
Gang bangin rappers. More from the shallow end of the gene pool. LOL!!
When will rap ever evolve into something that isn't rap? Both the tunes and the rap artists have become monotonously boring. The genre is about 15 years overdue for a rest.
Rap/Crap cannot evolve as those that produce and create it are not fully evolved. One might argue those that listen to it are "missing links" themselves. This lame excuse for music (talking or mumbling) is mostly created by the most failed people on the planet. Non-contributing, unsuccessful most detrimental race ever in the history of the world. Never a successful country, state, city, town or even a street. They lower education standards & property values wherever they go and that is generally where they are not wanted. The only thing they raise is the prison population.
Deport
The whole "missing link" thing is something that needs to be more fully explored, there used to be teams of scientists searching for the missing link, and then they just stopped, could it be that what they were finding wasnt politically correct? Why is it that 87% of the population walks around on eggshells trying to keep from offending the other 13%?
Those bigoted racist witnesses say African-Americans were in the Range Rover. Just another case of profiling!
/sarcasm off/
Hopefully there will be a Rap convention in Vegas where every rapper on earth will attend and they will all shoot each other.
animals will be animals. i wonder if the guns were legal and registered. i am for gun laws but even with the most strict laws animals like this will still get guns and kill people
Tupac was killed a block OFF the strip, on Flamingo and Koval, not ON it.
Also: the rappers have a long way to go to match the kill quota of the old Mafia days. Just sayin.
At least the wise guys tried very hard not to involve innocent bystanders in their "discusions"
Bill - tru dat. I miss the old days.
Live the thug life and die young or end up in prison!
I wonder if this was one of Obama's rapper friends that he was visiting in Vegas while Benghazi was going down?
The ugly level of racism in these posts is just hard to believe in the 21st C.
What kind of people make fun of murder victims? Do you all really have that much hate against black people that you laugh at their being killed? What about the taxi driver and passenger, are their deaths amusing too? You know practically nothing about this murder victim other than his race and his genre of music (which whether you like it or not, is a real genre - just ask your kids). The car was probably leased for a music video, the story says he was not even armed, and yet all of you racists assume he is a gang member getting what he deserved.
You are sick and ugly and frankly, no better for society than the people whose deaths you are laughing about.
Hear, hear.
Bells, Gangster Rap has always promoted violence and hate toward towards all races including Black. The Gangster Rap culture are the most violent racist culture. Everybody knows it. That's why you hear all these disturbing remarks.
...an 'aspiring' rapper with three estranged kids and a Maserati?
Hard to feel much pity there.
Oh, and he supposedly had a record - gun crimes!
My, the demographic. It defines itself.
Also, when was the last time you heard of country music artists, or rock artists, or bluegrass pickers shooting at each other on the street?
It's a pathetic culture through and through. But it's marketed brilliantly to youth of all races, and I suspect we've only seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to the social costs - imagine when this generation is in their 40's and has to grow up and be a part of society. Shudder.
Please go away liberaltard.
Right, so Vegas, Chicago and NY were safer when the mobsters were running the streets? What a joke.
The truth is that rap music is as popular with whites as with anyone else, and musicians have been killing themselves or others for generations - drugs killed off dozens of rockers and r&b artists as everyone on here knows.
Whatever you may think of this young man who was murdered in cold blood, there were also others killed as a result. None of this is funny and you are as low life as the killers if you think that it is amusing.
No one here is bad mouthing the innocent victims in the taxi or promoting mobsters. The anger is coming from the taxi occupants demise caused by the reckless self absorbed behavior of the other two jackasses in the other vehicles. You are an idiot Bells. WTF do drugs killing off rockers have to do with the level of violence and hate brought to the world via rap and it's "culture"?
Move over Tupac, you got company! Remember 2 thinks folks, you can't spell crap without rap and if you live by the rap you die by the rap.
pimpin' ain't easy
MSNBC ( My Socilitist News Broadcasting Co. ) wouldn't push an Obama agenda ????? ..........would they !! Gun violence is confined to criminals , and the mentally ill .
...............And the only people to die are with out guns !!If every one involved had a gun would their have even been gun play ?????
Ed Coles: What planet are you on? Are you going to tell the bad guy with the gun "Oh wait till I get my gun out"! If everyone had a gun it would be like the the wild west all over again and more people would have been killed. Get real will you.
people giving these fools money for this stupid rap crap that i cant understand a word of and have to listen to the same bet of the music with every one . its so irritating i cant listen to it. when they get all this money for this crap they buy Maserati's ,land rovers and guns and start shooting at each other while wearing their hats backwards with their crouch of their pants dragging on the ground thinking they are so cool. its sh_t like this that gives this country a bad name and ruins it for everybody else. talk about gun laws. this is the kind of stupidness that has to be talked about getting rid of. these fools wouldn't be so smart if it wasn't for them feeling big with their big guns.
I wonder if his record company will release a post-mortem album and proclaim him a martyr?
This is why I drive a Toyota, no one wants to mess with a Toyota. Seriously, when you flaunt money you made in suspicious ways you bring attention to yourself which is also followed by danger. Too bad innocent people got killed.
I cant believe all of you racist WHITES on here making horrible comments and jokes about someone being killed. You don't have to like Rap or Rappers...but to make fun and jokes about someone dying is awful and pathetic! I can also tell that NOONE really read the entire article. An "aspiring" Rapper is one who has appeared possibly on others tracks and who may have been advanced money due to an upcoming single or CD. THAT'SHOW HE WAS ABLE TO AFFORD THE MASERATI! Since some seem to be so worried about that! But yesterday you idiots were swearing a Gang Member was driving the Maserati....dumb-dumbs! Every single time I come here, you fools make everything about race. Most of you don't know shyt!
You really are naive aren't you?
Put down the pipe and get a job.
You used LIL in your name, you can't spell, and you clearly don't understand the definition of the word ASPIRING. It means he hasn't made it yet. You don't get a lot of money in the music business for being on someones cd when you are ASPIRING to become a rapper. He was a nobody in the music business. But he probably WAS a drug dealer. Go F yourself. Oh... and I'm not White. Now who's a racist?
Gangsta rap and doin tha dap, sometimes it just goes to crap! Drug deal gone bad or someone had their hat turned to the wrong side! Who knows with these punks, nobody cares when they take theirselves out but I really feel for the poor people in the cab...collateral damage! We need to deep 6 the punks in the RR when they catch them!