Newly released security footage brings into question DaBaby’s account that he was acting in self-defense when he fatally shot Jaylin Craig in a North Carolina Walmart in 2018, Rolling Stone reports.
DaBaby maintains his innocence and claims self-defense.
DaBaby spoke about the event in an old Instagram video, against the advice of his lawyer, to clear his name.
“Daughter could have got hit, son could have got hit [and] me,” the North Carolina rapper said in the video. “Lawyers … telling me not to say nothing … But two [people] walk down on you and your whole … family, threatening y’all, whip out [a gun] on y’all, let me see what y’all going to do.”
DaBaby gave a 45-minute testimony to Huntersville Police Department Detective Tim Lesser that two men were staring at him.
“They’re staring at me like they recognize me; like they was about to come pull a gun out,” DaBaby told detectives during his testimony, according to Rolling Stone. “What I’m hearing from it, they see me with my girl and my kids and [think], ‘This is a perfect opportunity to do something to him.’ … They’re trying to get me to provoke them so they could pull a gun out.”
He suggested he felt vulnerable with the two men hanging close by and admitted to the police he had a weapon, Rolling Stone reports.
One of the men gave his account of the altercation.
Henry Douglas, one of the men, told police that DaBaby started a conversation and asked something close to, “Do you know me?” according to Rolling Stone. When Douglas recognized his voice, he answered, “Oh, I thought that was you.”
Douglas alleges that he was on his way to say hello to a woman he knew in the store, which caused him to pass the rapper again. He said DaBaby demanded they go outside to fight. However, DaBaby had told the police that Douglas first proposed the brawl.
Douglas said he stepped back and turned away when DaBaby lunged at him, hitting him in the head and shoving him to the ground.
Police were unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt that DaBaby didn't act in self-defense.
As reviewed by Rolling Stone, the footage shows Craig standing close by when DaBaby makes contact with Douglas.
“Craig reaches into the front of his waistband to pull out what appears to be a firearm,” Mecklenburg County Assistant District Attorney William Bunting’s death-investigation report reveals, according to Rolling Stone.
The report added that Craig appears to move between the two interlocked men and “puts his left hand between the fighting pair, as if to pull them off one another.”
Afterward, DaBaby is seen holding his concealed .40-caliber Glock and shoots in the direction of Douglas and Craig at close range. Craig runs into an aisle with a trail of blood behind him, and a third camera shows him falling to the ground.
Douglas said he did not see Craig draw a weapon. But according to the death investigation report, a Walmart employee and a customer told police they saw Craig with a firearm in his waistband.
“He’s like trying to get around his homeboy and shoot me,” DaBaby told police. “When I break loose and get free with [my] gun … his homeboy is right here, and I shoot, boom, boom, boom.”
“Right now, it’s life and death for me and my kids,” he added. “I don’t know what their situation is; for me it’s strictly defense, life or death.”
Based on video and witness accounts, prosecutors determined they couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that DaBaby didn’t act in self-defense.
DaBaby was present when an alleged intruder was shot at a North Carolina property.
On April 14, DaBaby was present at a home in Troutman, North Carolina, when an alleged trespasser was shot outside of the residence, CNN reports.
Troutman Police Officers answered a 911 call around 7:45 p.m. When they arrived, officers found an injured man, KTLA reports.
No charges were filed in connection to the April 14 shooting, CNN reports.
