New Security Footage Complicates DaBaby’s Self-Defense Claim in 2018 Killing of Teenager
New security footage obtained by Rolling Stone shows what happened before and after DaBaby shot and killed a teenager in 2018.
While the rapper claimed he acted in self-defense that day, footage of the incident, which occurred on Nov. 5, 2018, at a Walmart in North Carolina, paints a different story.
In the video one can see DaBaby, given name, Jonathan Kirk, can be seen fighting with two teenagers, Henry Douglas and Jaylin Craig, who was ultimately killed during the altercation.
DaBaby shot and killed 19-year-old Jaylin Craig in 2018, a shooting the rapper claims was in self-defense.
New security footage obtained by Rolling Stone shows that DaBaby appears to be the aggressor, and contradicts key aspects of his version of events. https://t.co/TGZjJ0Da6o pic.twitter.com/M7kbKur3U9
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 25, 2022
While DaBaby claimed that the two teenagers approached him in an attempt to start a fight, the video shows the rapper running at Douglas, prompting others to get involved.
“They’re trying to get me to provoke them so they could pull a gun out,” DaBaby told police at the time.
The rapper also took to social media to address the incident, saying, “Daughter could have got hit, son could have got hit [and] me.”
“Fuckin’ lawyers telling me not to say something and shit, fuck all that. Two n—– walk down on you and your whole motherfucking family, threaten y’all, whip out on y’all, n—-, let me see what y’all gon’ do,” he said.
All charges against Kirk were ultimately dismissed because a key witness failed to show up in court.
At one point in the video, Craig does seem to pull out a gun but appears to put it away before DaBaby takes out his own firearm.
The rapper then fires several shots, hitting Craig in the side. Craig was declared dead in the Walmart within the hour.
While DaBaby was never charged with the killing, he was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon and was sentenced to 12 months probation and a suspended jail sentence. He signed to Interscope Records 11 weeks later.
“I feel like they just swept it up under the rug,” Craig’s mother, LaWanda Horsley, told Rolling Stone of the investigation into her son’s death. “[Kirk] knows what he did. I’m not doing this for no fame or anything, because at the end of the day, Jaylin Craig is gone.”
DaBaby is no stranger to controversy. In 2021, he made headlines for launching into a homophobic rant during the Miami festival Rolling Loud.
According to Variety, while performing at a concert this month in Las Vegas, DaBaby asked the women in the audience to “pull your titties out if you love DaBaby.”
He later attempted to surprise kiss a fan while in Vegas, but video shows the rapper getting rejected multiple times despite the fact that he grabbed the woman by the face and pulled her in for a kiss.
