Chicago rapper King Von stood over girl gang assassin Gakirah Barnes, pumping shot after shot into her in 2014, according to a new court filing that says Barnes’ death fueled a South Side gang war and led to the brazen daytime assassination of rival rapper FBG Duck in the luxury shopping district on Oak Street in 2020.
In their most detailed account of the killing yet, prosecutors have filed a 68-page court memo that lays out the evidence they expect to present at the trial of the six men charged in the shooting of FBG Duck, a Chicago rapper whose given name was Carlton Weekly.
The filing gives new details about the hatred between Barnes’ Gangster Disciples faction that operated east of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near 64th Street and King Von’s Black Disciples faction that controlled the Parkway Gardens apartments to the west.
FBG Duck was affiliated with Barnes’ STL/EBT faction of the Gangster Disciples, whose Black Disciples rivals now call themselves O Block after Odee Perry, a 20-year-old Gangster Disciples member Barnes is suspected of killing in the neighborhood in 2011.
In the court filing Friday, federal prosecutors said Barnes’ brother has “firsthand knowledge” that Barnes shot Perry.
Gakirah Barnes.
Sun-Times file
Then, in 2014, Barnes’ brother witnessed King Von, who’s described as a leader of O Block, stand over 17-year-old Barnes and fire multiple times at her, according to prosecutors. Barnes’ brother was wounded by King Von but got away, prosecutors said.
King Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, was shot to death on Nov. 6, 2020, in Atlanta, months after FBG Duck’s killing.
In a federal racketeering and murder case, prosecutors have accused six reputed O Block “members and associates” in the killing of FBG Duck: Ralph Turpin, Charles “C Murda” Liggins, Kenneth Roberson, Tacarlos Offerd, Christopher “C Thang” Thomas and Marcus “Muwop” Smart.
All are awaiting a trial scheduled for Oct. 10. A seventh suspect killed himself, police records show.
According to prosecutors, Turpin walked in to the Milani Boutique on Oak Street on the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2020, and spotted his rival FBG Duck, who was shopping for clothes for his young son’s birthday. Turpin called members of O Block to come to the Gold Coast from the South Side and kill FBG Duck, according to prosecutors.
A security guard secretly videotaped some of Turpin’s phone calls, prosecutors said.
Roberson, Liggins, Smart, Thomas and Offerd jumped in cars and raced to Oak Street, where they saw FBG Duck standing on the sidewalk outside the Dolce & Gabbana fashion store and started shooting at him at about 4:26 p.m., officials said.
“The shooting lasted about 12 seconds in total, but the shooters fired 38 times” and hit FBG Duck 16 times, prosecutors said.
The court filing said Roberson texted someone at 5:20 p.m. that day with a link to a news story about FBG Duck’s killing. Roberson told the person that King Von had put out a hit on FGB Duck before the killing and that that was one reason Roberson participated, according to the new court filing.
An informant in Chicago police custody told detectives and FBI agents that someone affiliated with the Black Disciples offered up $50,000 “to anyone that killed” FBG Duck and later raised the bounty to $100,000, the Chicago Sun-Times has reported.
Marcus Smart (left), who’s charged in the killing of rapper FBG Duck, with King Von on Aug. 10, 2020. That was six days after the killing. Prosecutors say the image shows them shopping for diamond pendants at an Atlanta jewelry store.
U.S. District Court
In the months before he was killed in late 2020, King Von bought $128,000 of gold necklaces with diamond-encrusted “O Block” pendants from a jewelry store in Atlanta, according to the court filing, wearing the biggest one and giving others to members of O Block.
King Von had ordered most of the pendants before FBG Duck died but bought some afterward, prosecutors said.
Their filing includes a photo of Smart standing with King Von on Aug. 10, 2020, six days after the killing, as they shopped for O Block pendants.
King Von’s own pendant was emblazoned “O Block for Life” and had the names on it of slain O Block members, prosecutors said.
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Click here to read the Sun-Times’ Jan. 29 story “FBG Duck had $100K bounty on his head: informant.”
