Rapper Julio Foolio died early Sunday morning in Tampa Florida, while celebrating his 26th birthday.
Charles Jones – better known as Julio Foolio – has died. He was 26.
The rapper from Jacksonville, Florida, was shot and killed early Sunday morning in Tampa, Florida, his lawyer, Lewis Fusco, confirmed to NBC News.
Police responded to reports of a shooting at a hotel in uptown Tampa a few hours before sunrise. Upon arriving at the scene, they found two vehicles in the parking lot that had been shot at. Jones was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Tampa Police Department. Three additional victims are in stable condition and receiving treatment at a local hospital.
Prior to his death, Jones posted footage to his Instagram Story that showed him advertising a pool party on Saturday evening, inviting his one million followers to direct-message him for the address. Later that night, he posted that police had "shut us down and kicked us out" of their Airbnb.
His lawyer then released a statement that Jones had relocated to a Holiday Inn after the Airbnb incident. It was there in the hotel's parking lot that he was reportedly ambushed.
"Best birthday everrrr 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 appreciate everybody who pulled up we turnt up till we couldn't nomo," Jones wrote in an Instagram Story just a few hours before the shooting. "We otw to the show now yall pull-up."
The Tampa Police Department is actively investigating the motive for the shooting and working to identify the individuals involved.
Jones, who had nearly one million monthly listeners on Spotify at the time of his death, had been making music since 2015. In April, when announcing the release of his latest album, Resurrection, Jones posted that he had already survived people trying to kill him.
"THESE LAST COUPLE MONTHS/YEARS OF MY LIFE BEEN TRAGIC," he wrote on Instagram on April 4. "GOD BEEN TRYNNA SEND ME A MESSAGE MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS ON MY LIFE I KEEP SURVIVING..I KEEP LOSING MY BRUDDAS TO JAIL AND GRAVEYARDS BUT I KNOW THE MOST HIGH DOING EVERYTHING FOR A REASON HE LET ME WALK AGAIN FOR A REASON."
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