Plot to assassinate rapper during SXSW festival foiled after podcaster snitched: cops
Texas police foiled an alleged plot to assassinate a rapper as he performed in Austin during the South By Southwest music festival last week after one of the men involved flipped on his co-conspirators, cops said.
Pierre Laday Jones, 38, a rap podcaster who goes by the name “TTE Notti,” told Austin cops that two of his pals were planning the hit on Isiaiah “OTM Zay” Jones, according to KEYE-TV.
TTE Notti claimed he was going to give Don Lee Bennett, 39, and another associate his SXSW VIP passes so that they could avoid security and sneak guns into an East Sixth Street club where OTM Zay was set to perform, the TV station reported.
Bennett was later subdued by SWAT officers at the club following a sting operation after he texted TTE Notti, “I’m on the scene” and walked toward the performance venue with a gun in tow, according to cops.
as he approached the club with a gun, according to court documents. Austin Police Department
“Operating off the intelligence provided to officers by Pierre Jones, it was reasonable to believe that Bennett was at the specific location armed with the handgun conspiring to commit murder against someone set to perform at the nearby location,” according to an affidavit.
“Taking into consideration the number of innocent lives at E. 6th Street, a densely populated area, a shooting of any kind could have unintended victims, causing a potential mass casualty event.”
OTM Zay, the alleged target of the hit, read the affidavit in a video posted on his YouTube channel in which he branded the police informant a rat.
Bennett was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the report.
The informant claimed that Bennett, an aspiring rapper who performs under the name “Dove Don,” and another unidentified associate had planned the hit on the performer to prevent him from testifying in an upcoming court case, cops alleged.
A YouTube video in which OTM Zay “spoke disparagingly” of the suspects and the informant was also being investigated as a possible motive, police reportedly said.
“I know Notti crazy, I know Notti tripping, bro. You know what I’m saying? And you really gotta tell that n—a bro, Notti, bro, you tripping. Like forcefully, you gotta really [be] like, ‘B—h, you tripping, ho. What the f–k is wrong with you, n—a?,'” OTM Zay ranted in one online clip from last month.
TTE Notti had told police he was able to obtain VIP passes due to his role as a podcaster who interviews rappers, but SXSW officials snapped back at his plan in a statement, and said OTM Zay’s show was not even part of the officially sanctioned music festival.
“This was not a SXSW concert and there is no such thing as a VIP festival pass,” the festival said in a statement to the outlet.
The eight-day festival, which ended Saturday, attracts some 2,000 official performers and many other musicians who play at peripheral events.
The investigation into conspiracy to commit murder was continuing, the affidavit reportedly said.