Say hello to Abdul Kareem Robinson, Jr., who is now in police custody, but who nearly died in 2015, when he was targeted in a shooting the Grand Park neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. News accounts noted that Robinson is “one of the sons of Abdul Karim Robinson, 44, who was among the city’s most notorious drug dealers in the 1990s”:
Police linked the elder Robinson to at least three deaths, but he was never charged in two and the charges were dropped in the third. . . .
Robinson, released from prison in 2009, also is the father of Malik Abdul Khalid Robinson, 18, who was arrested this month [May 2015] and charged with the March shooting of a 16-year-old in Jacksonville Beach. That Robinson spent weeks using social media to dare police to catch him.
Crime is the family business for the Robinsons of Jacksonville, who have been at the center of an ongoing gang war between their crew, known as ATK (“Ace’s Top Killers”) led by rapper Kenyatta “Yungeen Ace” Bullard and the rival gang KTA (“Kill Them All”) led by rapper Charles “Foolio” Jones. This gang war has been going on for four years and is the subject of international attention, with the various members of these Jacksonville rap crews releasing “diss tracks” bragging about who they murdered and disparaging dead members of the rival crews. The war reportedly started in May 2017 with the killing of 19-year-old Zion Brown, cousin of “Foolio.” In June 2018, KTA struck back in a shooting that killed three people — Trevon Bullard, 18 — the brother of “Yungeen Ace” — and their two friends, Royale D’Von Smith Jr., 18; and Jercoby Da’Shad Groover, 19. “Yungeen Ace” was shot eight times in that incident, but survived.
There have been numerous other shootings as part of this war, and “Yungeen Ace” survived again in March 2019 when three men from Jacksonville shot up a Hampton Inn in Waycross, Georgia, killing one of Ace’s associates and wounding another. So, this brings us back to the recent arrest of Abdul Robinson Jr.:
A sixth suspect sought in the early 2020 shooting death of 23-year-old Charles Quentin McCormick in a Jacksonville shopping center has been tracked down to Atlanta, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Abdul Kareem Robinson Jr., 26, will be extradited back to Jacksonville where six others already await trial in the attack in the Dames Pointe Plaza at 7001 Merrill Road, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
While Robinson’s arrest completes the search for suspects in the death of McCormick, aka rapper Lil Buck, it is part of a larger inter-gang fight also waged via rap music videos, according to court records.
Some suspects also face murder charges in the Feb. 25, 2019, shooting death of 16-year-old rapper Adrian Gainer, aka Bibby, in the Hilltop Village Apartments, court records said.
(This is a complicated story, but it helps to remember the two different victims — “Lil Buck” McCormick and “Bibby” Gainer.)
McCormick was gunned down about 11 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2020, witnessed by an off-duty officer who said the gunman stood over the victim and shot him with a rifle before getting into a Nissan Altima, the warrant said. The officer chased the car until it crashed on nearby Townsend Boulevard, and three people inside ran away.
Two of the men ran into a house where the homeowner tried to flee. But the men grabbed her by the neck, shoved her on a sofa and held her hostage before calling someone to get them, the warrant said. The intruders dressed in clothing found in her husband’s closet, then someone drove up and fled with the pair.
The ensuing police investigation saw 22-year-old Hakeem Armani Robinson arrested on Sept. 10 and charged with second-degree murder, police said. Hakeem Robinson’s 50-year-old father, Abdul Karim Robinson, also was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact.
The U.S. Marshals Service said Robinson Jr. is Hakeem Robinson’s brother, and a member of the ATK, or Ace’s Top Killers gang.
(So, Robinson Sr. was arrested with two of his sons, Abdul and Hakeem, and keep in mind that a third Robinson, Malik, was already jailed for a 2015 shooting. The family business, you see.)
Arrests continued with Dominique Jerrod Barner, 27, charged on March 19, 2020, with second-degree murder and aggravated fleeing an officer. Police also charged 23-year-old Janera Jaranee Smith with accessory after the fact, jail records show.
Investigators had found a rifle left in the Nissan along with a handgun when they searched the car, the warrant said. A fingerprint on the handgun was found to be Hakeem Robinson’s, while a hair found on a T-shirt nearby was also identified as his after a lab test.
Further investigation revealed photos of guns on Hakeem Robinson’s Instagram account, plus a music video by McCormick with the caption “Byeeee byeeee” and emojis of waving hands, the warrant said. Another video, also posted after McCormick’s death, showed Hakeem Robinson getting a pedicure as a caption read “Kill a n—– then go get my toes done.”
Barner told detectives he was driving the Nissan with Hakeem Robinson and Leroy G. Whitaker as they searched for McCormick “with the specific intent of killing him,” the warrant said. Barner said the reason for wanting McCormick dead was that he had made a song that “talked despairingly” about Hakeem Robinson’s dead brother, Willie Addison Jr.
(Willie Addison was a known gangster.)
Addison, a rapper known as Boss Goon, was shot on Jan. 16, 2019, after he performed at a late-night rap music event at the Paradise Gentlemen’s Club at 8669 Baymeadows Road. Police said Addison and others left the club and were on Emerson Street when the shooting took place near Spring Park Road. Someone fired from another vehicle that pulled alongside their Chevrolet Tahoe, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Addison’s father, Abdul Robinson, was among those shot but not killed inside, according to news partner First Coast News. The Sheriff’s Office said that shooting “was a targeted act of violence against the occupants of the Tahoe.”
Just over a month after Addison’s death, 16-year-old Adrian Dennard Gainer Jr., a rapper known as Bibby, was shot dead in the Hilltop Village Apartments. Hakeem Robinson was also charged on March 10 with second-degree murder in that case, court records show.
(Are you following the logic of this feud? The Robinsons, part of ATK crew, blamed the KTA gang for the shooting that killed Willie “Boss Goon” Addison, and struck back against “Bibby” Gainer, a young KTA protégé of “Foolio” Jones. The mayhem continues . . .)
The arrest warrant said Gainer and another man were in a gazebo at the complex at 1646 W. 45th St. at about 3 p.m. Surveillance video spotted a gray or silver Nissan Altima drive into the complex. A witness saw Hakeem Robinson and another man identified later as Whitaker get out with semi-automatic rifles and begin shooting, the warrant said.
Gainer and the other man heard gunfire, split up and tried to flee. A witness said he saw Gainer fall to the ground as he was shot, trying to protect himself, the warrant said.
“Robinson ran up to Bibby and shot him at close range in the back of the head or neck as Bibby continued trying to shield himself,” the warrant said.
Investigators found 45 shell casings at the crime scene. And Hakeem Robinson posted several photographs and videos “bragging about the murder of ‘Bibby,'” the warrant said. . . .
Whitaker was arrested on April 15, 2020, on charges of home-invasion robbery and armed burglary at the home off Townsend Boulevard after McCormick was killed, court records show. A second-degree murder count was later added.
Meanwhile, Robinson Jr. remained at large. Then on June 24 the U.S. Marshals Service offered a $5,000 reward for information that led to his arrest. It said he was wanted by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office “for an ambush-style homicide,” according to its reward notice. . . .
Fulton County Sheriff’s Office records show he was arrested Friday in the Atlanta area on a warrant for fugitive from justice on a murder charge, awaiting extradition back to Jacksonville.
So six suspects are now in custody for these two murders, committed by Youngeen Ace’s ATK crew against members of Foolio’s KTA crew. Excuse me if I’ve lost count of all the shootings and arrests connected to this Jacksonville rap-gang war. You get the idea that there might not be any black people left alive in Jacksonville if it keeps going and guess what? It ain’t over yet. In March, Youngeen Ace’s crew released a diss track called “Who I Smoke” that’s gotten nearly 30 million views on YouTube. Foolio responded in April with a diss track called “When I See You” that begins with audio of news coverage of the 2018 shooting that put eight bullets in Youngeen Ace and killed his brother and two friends.
As for Youngeen Ace himself, he’s reportedly hiding out in Houston, and police won’t even let him perform in Jacksonville, but he knows he’s a target and somewhere there’s a bullet with his name on it, because Foolio’s KTA must avenge the murder of Bibby and Lil Buck. Just sending six people to jail won’t be enough. Youngeen Ace is a dead man walking.
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