Self-proclaimed rapper and gang member La’Darion Chandler is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of a gang rival. The suspect posted a video about it on social media, officials said. (Screenshot from a Polk County Sheriff’s Office news conference.)
A 19-year-old gang member faces a first-degree murder charge for allegedly shooting a rival gang member in the back and then bragging about it in a rap video he posted on social media.
La’Darion Chandler was charged in the shooting death of John McGee on Dec. 17 in the subdivision of Lakeland, 40 miles east of Tampa, Florida. McGee died at a hospital 24 days later, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.
In a news conference, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd chastised the suspect, calling him a stupid rapper and a coward.
“Now, first off. Come on, man. You shoot someone else in the back? What kind of coward is that?” Judd said. “He’s just a terrible rapper. But he’s a stupid rapper because, you know, he not only makes him a rap video about shooting somebody. He admits shooting the guy in the back. I’m a coward rapper. That’s what I am.”
Chandler was arrested on Feb. 22 for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after pointing a gun and threatening someone near where McGee was shot, officials said. A search of his apartment uncovered ammunition in a black duffel bag but no murder weapon.
Chandler was convicted of three felonies as a juvenile – fleeing to elude, grand theft of a motor vehicle, and vehicle burglary, authorities said. He was also charged with being a convicted delinquent in possession of a firearm or ammunition, with a gang enhancement, officials said.
Detectives found a rap video on Chandler’s social media pages where he talks about shooting someone in the back – details that had not been publicly released.
Authorities said the lyrics in the video are:
N—- tried to run
I hit his back
Though I shoot like a mac
Dirt ass dead n—– knowing where to find me at
Other rap songs on Chandler’s social media pages include lyrics about always being armed and photos of himself holding firearms.
In addition to the first-degree murder charge, he faces aggravated assault with deadly weapon charges. Officials said his prior records prohibited him from possessing a gun.
Judd said McGee’s mother wanted authorities to talk about him because she’s passionate about trying to stop the senseless violence from occurring to any other mother’s child.
“He’s 33 years of age,” Judd said of the victim. “Now, he is an adult by every sense of the word, but he is still his momma’s baby. He’s still her child. She admits readily that he has misbehaved throughout life and that he has conducted himself in a manner that she does not approve of. And she’s told him that.
“He’s a troublemaker, make no mistake about it. But he shouldn’t have died.”
McGee had been released from prison about two months before he was shot, Judd said.
McGee was initially expected to recover at the hospital, the sheriff said. But as he started to get better, he refused to take the medicine doctors told him to take so his body could heal.
From his hospital bed, he would not cooperate with authorities. Judd said he planned to get well and go back and seek revenge against his rival.
“He wanted to take care of it himself,” Judd said.
McGee died on Jan. 9.
Judd said that when investigators arrested Chandler last month, he initially clammed up, did not cooperate, and “wanted to be bad.”
But when authorities showed him the first-degree murder warrant, “he started crying like a baby that lost his pacifier.”
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