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US Rapper Silento Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Killing Cousin
American rapper Silento, best known for his 2015 hit single “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting of his cousin.
The 27-year-old, whose real name is Richard Lamar Hawk, admitted to killing his 34-year-old cousin, Frederick Rooks III, in January 2021. According to the DeKalb County Police Department, Rooks was found with multiple gunshot wounds on Jan. 21, 2021. Surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home captured a white BMW SUV speeding away from the scene moments after the gunfire — a vehicle investigators later linked to Silento.
Authorities also revealed that the victim had last been seen in the company of Silento, inside the same white BMW.
Silento’s arrest came after years of documented personal and legal struggles. In an emotional 2019 interview on the medical talk show The Doctors, he opened up about his mental health battles, saying, “I have been fighting demons my whole life. I don’t know if these demons will ever go away.”
Following his arrest, Silento’s publicist, Chanel Hudson, released a statement asserting that the rapper had been suffering from “a series of mental health illnesses for the past several years.”
The tragic shooting was not Silento’s first run-in with the law. In August 2020, he was charged with two counts of assault after allegedly attacking two individuals with a hatchet at their residence.