Police Make Third Arrest In XXXTentacion Murder
A third person has been arrested in connection with the June 2018 shooting death of Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, better known as rapper XXXTentacion.
According to a post on TMZ from July 25, 2018, police arrested Robert Allen in Eastman, Georgia, who was reportedly found at his sister's home. He'll be extradited to Broward County, Florida, where XXXTentacion was shot a month earlier outside of a motorcycle dealership. Allen was indicted on charges of first degree murder and armed robbery by a grand jury last week, along with three other men — Trayvon Newsome, Michael Boatwright, and Dedrick Williams — the latter two of whom have already been arrested. While three of the four men indicted for XXXTentacion's murder are now in custody, the man who is believed to have pulled the trigger — Newsome — is still at large.
According to the report, the police said that Allen's sister cooperated with law enforcement when they arrived to make their arrest. The arrest itself was made possible due to the work of the U.S. Marshals task force, which had tracked him to his sister's home in the first place.
The news of Onfroy's death last month shocked the hip-hop world, both due to the rapper's youth and seemingly promising career, as well as his own controversial run-ins with the law. He was only 20 years old when he was shot dead after an apparent robbery, allegedly at the hands of the aforementioned four suspects. The rapper himself was arrested in 2015: both on charges of home invasion robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm, as well as charges of domestic assault, in which he allegedly assaulted his then-girlfriend, who was also pregnant at the time. The charges against Onfroy were eventually dropped, but he was later charged with witness tampering, having allegedly coerced his ex into not testifying against him in court.
Ultimately, it's impossible to say what the future might have held for XXXTentacion had he not been killed in June. The New York Times reported in early July 2018 that Onfroy had signed a $10 million record deal only a few weeks before he was murdered. Additionally, no shortage of established stars in the hip-hop and music world took to social media to express their regret that Onfroy was killed before he had a chance to truly see his career flourish — or to fully turn his life away from its aforementioned dark and violent path.
DJ and record producer Diplo (real name Thomas Wesley Pentz) expressed such sentiments in a lengthy Instagram post after news of XXXTentacion's death hit.
"He has his faults and we was willing to pay for his sins. [B]ut he was young and he worked so hard on his own self. He wanted to be better."
Kanye West, likewise, posted a similar message of regret for Onfroy's passing on Twitter: "Rest in peace [...] I never told you how much you inspired me when you were here."