By Eric Jankiewicz
The wife of the amateur rapper who was killed last week is in the middle of planning a funeral and memorial, she wrote on Facebook.
Lionel Pickens, who was known by his rap name Chinx, was shot to death in the early hours Sunday at 84th Drive and Queens Boulevard in Briarwood. Police were still searching for the killer.
Pickens and his friend were in a Porsche, according to police, when another car pulled up to the driver’s side and shot at Pickens and his friend, Antar Alziadi. Pickens was hit at least eight times, authorities said.
The rapper was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center , where he died. Alziadi was hit more than once, but he managed to live and he is now in critical condition, according to police. There had been no arrests as of Wednesday afternoon and the investigation was ongoing, police said.
According to The New York Times, Chinx had performed in Brooklyn on Saturday night. Chinx’s wife, Janelli Caceres, took to Facebook, where she memorialized her husband and the father of her three children.
“My son is asking for his dad he wants him to come home he keeps asking why did God angels take his dad and when are they bringin him back,” she recently wrote. “What do I say to him!!!??? To see this sadness in him is killin … These Devils ruined my family they took a father away from his kids from his son that he loved to death…why?”
Chinx was a member of the hip-hop group and record label Coke Boy. He was living in Ozone Park but had grown up rapping since high school in Far Rockaway with a local rap group Rockaway Riot Squad. He later joined Bronx rapper French Montana’s record label Coke Boys in 2009.
Chinx was an up-and-coming rapper and had been considered in a vote for XXL magazine’s Freshmen 10th Spot, a magazine dedicated to hip-hop and rap music news.
His management team, Legion Media Group, posted a picture of him in a suit on Instagram and released a statement Sunday announcing his death.
Chinx served a four-year sentence for cases involving robbery and crack cocaine at Mid-State Correctional Facility before signing with the Coke Boys record label. While he was in prison, his mentor, Steven Bundles, whose real name was Rayquan Elliott, was shot to death in 2007 in the lobby of his Far Rockaway apartment, according to reports citing police. Like Chinx, he was due to release an album soon.
According to The New York Post, Chinx was shot at least 15 times soon after performing at a nightclub called the Red Wolf. Chinx and his friend were shot by a lone gunman, according to The Post, who pulled up in a blue car.
One possible motive for the shooting was a jealous friend or someone who resented Chinx’s success. Chinx usually had two security guards drive him around, but for some unknown reason Chinx did not have the bodyguards in the car with him on the night of his death.The death of Chinx has also stirred fear of a whole set of retaliatory killings.
