Lil Tjay directed friends to attack Offset before shooting, arrest report says
New York hip hop artist Lil Tjay ordered a group of his friends to fight another group that included rapper Offset before a shot was fired, striking the Atlanta musician Monday night outside the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, according to an arrest report released to the Miami Herald.
Offset, whose name is Kiari Kendrall Cephus, 34, was shot and wounded in the melee and taken to Memorial Regional Hospital. Lil Tjay, 24, whose name is Tione Jayden Merritt, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. He has since been released from jail.
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The incident started around 7:20 a.m. at the Oculus entrance of the Hard Rock, according to Merritt’s arrest affidavit. There, he “directed” his entourage to fight Offset’s group, the report states. Merritt filmed the fight with his phone, police say.
During the fight, a member of Merritt’s crew pulled out a gun and shot Offset, according to the report.
While Offset’s friends tended to him, Merritt ran up to them and began throwing punches, the report states. Seminole Police Department officers arrived and broke up the fight, according to the report.
As of Tuesday afternoon, no other arrests have been made and there is no update on Offset’s condition, said department spokesman Gary Bitner. The department said earlier that Offset’s injuries were “non-life threatening.”
Offset came to fame about a decade ago as a member of the Georgia-based hip hop group Migos. He has three children with Bronx rapper Cardi B, his ex-wife.
Another member of Migos, known as Takeoff, was shot and killed outside a downtown Houston bowling alley in November 2022.
Lil Tjay, who is also from the Bronx, has more than 8 million followers on Instagram and is signed to Columbia Records.
He had much to say when questioned by reporters as he walked out of a Broward County Jail on Tuesday after posting bond, wearing a black T-shirt that was only halfway on, according to a video posted on NBC 6 South Florida’s Instagram account. “The last thing I see was Offset looking at me like this,” Merritt said, adding that the former Migos rapper accused him of being the shooter. “Did I shoot?,” Merritt said. “That [expletive] is crazy.”
A judge had set his bond at $500. Information on his legal counsel was not immediately available.
Merritt said he would smack Offset and directed reporters to ask him about what happened Monday night at the casino.
Miami Herald staff writer Sofia Saric contributed to this report.
