MIAMI _ Convicted car thief Dedrick Williams was arrested as a suspect in the murder of rapper XXXTentacion outside a Pompano Beach, Fla., motorcycle shop, the Broward Sheriff's Office announced Thursday.
Williams has been booked into Broward County Main Jail on charges of first-degree murder, driving without a license and violation of probation. The 22-year-old Pompano Beach resident was in the middle of a five-year probation on four counts of grand theft auto. He was arrested Wednesday night.
Though Williams has several other arrests, the grand theft auto charges remain his only criminal convictions. He also had a temporary injunction filed against him for domestic violence for 10 days in fall 2014.
The 20-year-old XXXTentacion, real name Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was outside Riva Motorsports when he was killed Monday evening.
Onfroy slumped in the driver's seat of his $150,000-plus sports car while bystanders and then BSO deputies checked his pulse. He was transported to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead.
According to the arrest report, a warrant has been out for Williams' arrest since Tuesday. On Wednesday evening, a BSO detective arrested Williams after spotting him driving a 2004 Honda Accord in Pompano Beach.
David Bogenshutz, a well-known criminal defense attorney who represented Onfroy, said learning of the arrest did not bring him or the rapper's family any relief. The Broward Sheriff's Office had said two suspects ambushed Onfroy.
"There's really nothing close to closure at this point," he said. Bogenshutz told the Miami Herald on Thursday that Onfroy was not under the protection of a private security at the time of the shooting, and that he condemned the idea of hiring bodyguards when Bogenshutz and other recommended it.
"I don't think Jahseh ever came to grips with how famous he was," Bogenshutz said. "If he had security, maybe things would be different. Maybe not." Bogenshutz said he believes Onfroy withdrew money to purchase a motorcycle before the deadly attack.
A few months ago, Onfroy posted an Instagram live video that proved an eerie foreshadowing of his shocking death.
"If I'm going to die or ever be a sacrifice, I want to make sure that my life made at least 5 million kids happy or they found some sort of answers or resolve in my life," he said on the video. "If worst comes to worse _ I f(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)ing die a tragic death or some s(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK) _ and I'm not able to see out my dreams I at least want to know that the kids perceive my message and were able to make something of themselves."
