Rapper Silento Charged With His Cousin’s Murder

Rapper Silento attends the 2016 BET Awards. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Silento, who is best known for his popular dance track “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” has been charged with murder in the shooting death of his older cousin near Atlanta.

The Atlanta rapper, real name Ricky Lamar Hawk, was arrested Monday in connection with the January killing of 34-year-old Frederick Rooks.

Hawk, 23, is currently being held in the DeKalb County Jail on one count of murder, the DeKalb County Police Department said in a statement on Twitter.

Related Story: ‘Whip/Nae Nae’ Rapper Silento Charged With Assault in Attempted Hatchet Attack

On Jan. 21, Rooks was fatally shot in Panthersville, Georgia. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and his body was left in the middle of a residential street around 3:30 a.m., according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

Investigators used security camera footage from area residents as they searched for a suspect. The video showed several cars fleeing the scene and at least one gunshot being fired, according to an incident report obtained by the paper. Detectives have not yet announced a motive for the shooting.

Hawk, 23, has previously had a string of brushes with the law, including in Southern California.

As Urban Hollywood 411 reported, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged him with two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon in September, after he allegedly tried to attack two strangers with a hatchet in the Valley Village section of Los Angeles.

“Hawk reportedly walked into an unlocked stranger’s home in Valley Village and attempted to strike the two people in the home with a hatchet before one of them managed to disarm him,” prosecutors said in a statement.

He is alleged to have committed the crime while out on bail for a domestic violence incident miles away in Santa Ana, Calif. He was booked there on suspicion of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant.