Grammy-winning rapper arrested in connection with 2022 L.A. slaying

Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk was arrested Thursday in connection with a fatal ambush near Los Angeles' Beverly Center shopping mall two years ago.

The artist — real name Durk Devontay Banks — was taken into custody near Miami and is being held without bail, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Prosecutors say Lil Durk ordered the killing of fellow rapper Quando Rondo, with whom Durk and his associates have had a violent, yearslong feud.

Instead of Rondo, however, Durk's associates killed Rondo's cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, at a gas station near the Beverly Center, prosecutors said.

In a press release from the United States Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada called the attack "a cold-blooded murder that resulted in the death of a rival's family member."

"The shooting occurred in the open, at a gas station at a busy intersection, endangering many others in the area," Estrada said. "Violent gun crime of this sort is devastating to our community and we will have zero-tolerance for those who perpetrate such callous acts of violence.”

An FBI agent said in an affidavit that Durk put a bounty on Rondo — born Tyquian Terrel Bowman — after a 2020 disagreement with Rondo and his associates resulted in the shooting death of Durk's friend and collaborator King Von, who was born Dayvon Bennett.

Before the 2022 killing, Durk supplied a credit card to a friend who then bought a hotel room and masks for the five-man hit squad, as well as supplying weapons and vehicles, prosecutors allege.

Durk, who won his first Grammy for Best Melodic Rap Performance earlier this year, also allegedly tried to cover up his involvement. A message from his iCloud account told the person who booked the flights to L.A. "don’t book flights under no names involved wit me.”

The alleged hit squad was arrested in Chicago on Thursday. They were identified by the DOJ as:

• Kavon London Grant, 28, aka “Cuz” or "Vonnie"
• Deandre Dontrell Wilson, 33, aka “DeDe,” of Chicago
• Keith Jones, 33, aka “Flacka,” of Gary, Indiana
• David Brian Lindsey, 33, aka “Browneyez,” of Addison, Illinois
• Asa Houston, 36, aka “Boogie,” of Chicago

Durk's arrest came hours before he was trying to leave the country, the FBI says.

"[Durk] had booked one-way flights to Dubai and Switzerland scheduled to leave that night," the Times reports. "He was also listed as a passenger on a private plane bound for Italy."

Akil Davis, assistant director in charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office, said in the DOJ release that Durk's capture "as he attempted to leave the United States is once again proof that the FBI and our extraordinary partners at the Los Angeles Police Department have a long reach."

“No excuse can justify this violent act and let me be clear: While you’re going about your life, thinking you ‘got away with it,’ the FBI is piecing together the facts that will serve as your undoing," Davis said.