Witnesses say they heard a single gunshot in the Clifton area of Staten Island and he was later pronounced dead on the scene. No arrests have been made at this time, but police are investigating the shooting. An NYPD official would not say if they would look into allegations that a commenter on Megatron's YouTube videos accusing him of owing money might have been behind the murder.

"It's just earth-shattering," his mother, Louvenia McGriff, 60, told the Daily News over the phone from her Georgia home. "Words can't describe how my husband and I feel right now. I just don't know how we're going to make it without him. He was our golden child."

The family plans to launch a scholarship fund in his three children's name, whose ages range from 11 years to nine months old.