Rapper Quando Rondo was left intensely distraught in the wake of a shooting out in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, which left a member of his entourage dead on Friday afternoon.
The deadly shooting happened at roughly 5:30 p.m. local time at a gas station found near La Cienega and Beverly boulevards, which sits just across the road from the Beverly Center. According to a statement from John Radke, a Los Angeles Police Lt., a total of three suspects fired off a series of rounds into the rapper’s black Cadillac Escalade.
“We don’t know why or how this happened, all we know is that the victim vehicle, they pulled up, they were pumping gas and it looks like they probably finished pumping gas and the suspects approached from the alley, got out of the car and started shooting at those victims,” expressed Radke.
Directly after the shooting, witnesses of the event claimed that a group of cars, which included the escalade, sped out of the area. A short bit later, the Cadillac slammed to a stop at the intersection of Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards in West Hollywood, at which time paramedics were spotted attempting to treat a still undisclosed number of injured victims.
One such victim, a 23-year-old male who has not had his name made public, was pulled from the car and sent over to the hospital, where he would later die.
Irene Cruz, a local reporter for ABC, posted a video of the scene on social media that showed the single victim being pulled out of the black SUV while another of the passengers from the vehicle reacted to the ordeal.
BEVERLY GROVE SHOOTING: frantic moments after this man discovered someone in his car had been shot. A shooting started at a gas station in Beverly Grove, took to the streets, and ended in West Hollywood.
I’ve got the full story ahead at 11 p.m. on @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/VWkf1aqXzU
— Irene Cruz (@ABC7Irene) August 20, 2022
The man, who was later identified as Savannah rapper Quando Rondo, was very obviously distraught as he quickly walked back and forth alongside the car.
“Noooo! Ohhhhhhhh! Nooooo!” Quando Rondo could be heard screaming repeatedly as he watched helplessly as the incident played out before him. At one point, he seemed to try to walk up to the vehicle, but a police officer sporting a flak vest blocked him and walked him back away from the crime scene and the vehicle.
“Keep everybody back, let’s go,” expressed another officer on the scene.
A spokesman for the rapper did reach out to confirm to those at TMZ that he had, in fact, personally witnessed the scene, but that he has managed to get away uninjured. “Quando was present during a shooting yesterday evening which resulted in the untimely death of another young man’s life. He himself didn’t sustain any injuries during the shooting and is safe. We ask that his privacy is respected at this time.”