Noted Brooklyn drill rapper 22Gz was arrested this week and is facing attempted murder charges, relating to a March shooting at a Marine Park club that left three people injured with gunshot wounds.
The rapper, 24, whose government name is Jeffrey Alexander, was arrested at JFK Airport on Sunday and had been indicted on attempted murder, assault, and weapons charges. He was being held on $500,000 bail in relation to a March 6 shooting outside Club Freeze on Flatbush Avenue in Marine Park. He was en route to perform at Hot 97’s Summer Jam Festival.
Brooklyn prosecutors allege 22Gz opened fire outside the club with an intended target in mind, but two bystanders also sustained wounds in the chaos; all three were shot in either the foot or leg. The Brooklyn DA’s office, which is prosecuting the case, alleges that 22Gz is a member of a local gang, though a spokesperson did not say which one.
“This shooting not only wounded the victim, but endangered the lives of everyone in a crowded club,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said on Twitter. “Senseless gang rivalries fuel much of the gun violence in our communities and I remain committed to vigorously prosecuting anyone who engages in this criminal conduct.”
22Gz first gained notice in 2016 with the release of his single “Suburban,” an early charting hit for Brooklyn’s homegrown drill scene, and he has since been feted as a pioneer and innovator in the genre. But drill has come under increasing scrutiny and criticism of late, including from Mayor Eric Adams, who argues that the lyrical and social media beefing common in the genre have led to real-life gun violence among its proponents.
Perhaps Brooklyn drill’s most celebrated exponent, Pop Smoke, was fatally gunned down in Los Angeles in 2020, at just 20 years of age. Earlier this year, TDott Woo, the inventor of the viral “Woo Walk” dance, died after being shot in the head outside his Canarsie home. He was just 22.
22Gz is no stranger to legal troubles either. He did five months in a Florida jail after being accused of second-degree murder in Miami in 2017, allegedly over a parking spot, but he was released and the charges were dropped after prosecutors couldn’t prove their case.
The rapper’s lawyer Stacey Richman did not respond to a request for comment.
