We hear @KeakDaSneak got shot in Richmond this morning.
— Thizzler On The Roof (@TheThizzler) August 21, 2017
Our prayers go out to the legend, and we wish him a full and speedy recovery. 🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/mAZeQQlzc3
A longtime Bay Area rapper credited as one of the originators of the hyphy movement was shot multiple times Monday morning, just hours after he performed in Oakland.
Richmond police say they found 39-year-old Keak Da Sneak, whose given name is Charles Williams, at a gas station at Carlson Boulevard and Imperial Way in Richmond at 5:30 a.m. Monday. He was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, KRON 4 reports, saying:
Williams was parked at the gas station but not getting gas, employees said. He was talking to someone in a car beside him.Somebody then walked up to his car from the sidewalk and shot him more than five times.
This was the scene in Richmond where popular rapper @KeakDaSneak was shot multiple times this a.m. Latest on @nbcbayarea @5pm. #keakdasneak pic.twitter.com/yOdVsG0zp6
— Jodi Hernandez (@JodiHernandezTV) August 21, 2017
Police told NBC Bay Area that Williams's "car had also rolled across the street into a bus stop."
ABC 7 reports that "Police do not have a suspect or getaway vehicle description, but they do have surveillance video and they're going through it."
According to the Chron, Williams "was transported to a trauma center, where he underwent several hours of surgery and is in recovery." Friends confirm this to KRON, saying "he is in ICU and out of surgery. He is said to be doing OK."
On Sunday night, Williams had performed at Complex Oakland. “The concert ended before midnight,” Richmond Police Department spokesperson Lieutenant Felix Tan told the Chron. “Between that time and [Monday] morning, something transpired.”
"What we know is he was most likely targeted," Tan told ABC 7.
"It wasn't a random shooting and it kind of underscores the fact that the person who did this was intending to probably take his life because you don't just shoot multiple times at a person not intending for the person to die," Tan said.
This isn't Williams's first shooting, as on January 20, Williams was shot but took the stage only two days later.
Williams was also arrested in May for a probation violation, following a September 2016 police pursuit in Hercules that resulted in an arrest for driving on a suspended license and evading the police.
Along with the late Mac Dre and E-40, both of Vallejo, the Oakland-born Williams helped bring national attention to the Bay Area's hyphy movement in the early 2000s. Also a member of legendary underground Bay Area rap group 90s rap group 3X Krazy, Williams is perhaps best known for his appearance in E-40's 2006 hit "Tell Me When to Go."
In a deleted Instagram video reported by the East Bay Times, Oakland rapper Mistah F.A.B., who attended Sunday's Keak Da Sneak show, said “We need to stop waiting ’til we hear news of something to show our appreciation for someone."
"When a man be going through his ups and downs and trials and tribulations, that’s when he needs his friends. That’s when he needs his support. We gotta start loving each other while we here, man, giving each other roses while we’re here."
Previously: Hyphy Rapper Keak Da Sneak Is Recovering, Performing After Being Shot