Rapper Goonew Fatally Shot In Maryland Parking Lot
A police investigation is underway in the fatal shooting of Maryland rapper Markelle Morrow, known as Goonew to his fans, NBC Washington reports.
Officers responded to gunfire in District Heights, Maryland on Friday (March 18) at about 5:40 p.m. They discovered Goonew, 24, in a parking lot with gunshot wounds. He was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
According to WUSA9, Prince George’s County Police Department is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or conviction.
The up-and-coming rap artist died just blocks away from where he was born, WUSA9 reported. His mother, Patrice Parker Morrow said he was on his way to give his sister a birthday gift when he was shot. She believes that robbery was the motive behind the shooting.
“They wanted my son dead because he gave it up,” the grieving mother told WUSA9. “They took his chain. They took his watch. He gave it up and they still shot him in his back.”
Parker Morrow recalled hearing screaming from people down the street saying someone had shot her son. Her daughter ran outside to find out what happened.
“I couldn't move. I was shaking really bad, my mouth starts shivering really bad. I just couldn't move for a long long time,” she said, adding her son “had a heart bigger than his body, when they took him, they took me.”
Parker Morrow said her son’s goal was to move his family “out the hood.”
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Goonew began his rap career in 2017, and soon dropped multiple songs across a series of albums, including “Certified Goon,” “Homicide Boys,” and “Big 64,” The Washington Post reported.
“The 24-year-old Maryland rapper had a gift for smearing time, phrasing his rhymes slightly in front of the beat, making the present moment feel weightless and imprecise. It gave his music an enchanted atemporality, but for Goonew, it all felt perfectly natural,” wrote the Post’s Chris Richard.
