Kirsnick Khari Ball, better known as Takeoff from the rap group Migos, passed away in a fatal shooting early on Tuesday morning at the age of 28.
While there were accounts from law enforcement and even video footage of the altercation leading up to the shooting, there was no hard confirmation from authorities as to what transpired.
Quality Control Music, Migos’ management and record label issued a statement on Instagram, mourning Takeoff’s passing and confirming that senseless violence and a stray bullet took the rapper’s life.
The incident reportedly occurred around 2:30 am outside a bowling alley in Houston, Texas. The exact context behind the altercation’s escalation into a shooting remain unclear, but footage acquired by TMZ showed Quavo and Takeoff in an indiscernible argument with a group of men before shots were fired.
The Houston Police Department that a 23-year old male and a 24-year old female were also caught up in the gunfire and hit. Not a day before his passing, Takeoff was promoting his new music video, ‘Messy’.
Takeoff is survived by his family and Migos group members Quavo and Offset, his uncle and cousin respectively. The trio were one of the most influential rap groups of the 2010s, popularizing a number of pop culture phenomena and musical motifs within the hip-hop genre – a community which is shaken to the core by Takeoff’s passing.