An up-and-coming rapper and his 5-year-old daughter were tragically killed Monday night when a gunman opened fire at a North Texas car wash, striking both victims in a hail of bullets.
Relatives confirmed the victims as rapper G$ Lil Ronnie, whose real name was Chuckie Smith, and his young daughter, R’mani Sibley.
The burst of gunfire that claimed them erupted at Slappy’s Express Car Wash on Forest Hill Drive, near Fort Worth, prompting multiple 911 calls. A MedStar ambulance arrived within minutes, but father and daughter were already dead.
By Monday afternoon, a somber crowd of family and friends had gathered at the car wash, where a heavy law enforcement presence—including Forest Hill and Fort Worth police, firefighters, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office, and other agencies—had responded.
Crime-scene tape stretched throughout the scene amid the unspeakable loss.
The car wash sits directly behind a quiet middle-class neighborhood, with homes less than 120 feet away. It’s unclear, though, whether any homes had been in the line of fire.
Photos provided by local station Fox4 capture multiple angles of the crime scene, including one image showing more than two dozen evidence markers scattered around the vacuum stalls—suggesting automatic gunfire had erupted there. Right beside the apparent fusillade sat a late-model maroon Dodge Charger with its driver-side door swung open. Police have not provided details, leaving it unclear whether the vehicle was involved.
Authorities also did not indicate the number of times each victim was shot.
The layout of the car wash shows that the shooter had only one way in and out—a 180-foot driveway leading to the property. To carry out the attack, the gunman would have had to drive in, commit the shooting, and exit the same way. It’s unclear whether anyone witnessed the shooting or the gunman’s vehicle fleeing the scene.
Meanwhile, additional police officers were dispatched for crowd control as news crews and a large number of people gathered at the scene following the shooting.
Smith’s aunt Stella Houston spoke to reporters, revealing that Smith was cleaning the interior of his car when “somebody came through shooting and killed him and the baby.”
The gunman sped away and remains at large. However, police say they know who they’re looking for. A judge has signed a capital murder warrant for the man, but police have yet to disclose the suspect’s name, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Family members remain in shock over an unimaginable tragedy.
“He was a family man, and he was going around rapping, OK?” Houston told the newspaper. “Why would you target him? … He didn’t bother nobody. And a baby? His baby?”
Tributes poured in on social media, with many people expressing dismay and agony over the death of the little girl, whose name was R’mani Sibley, according to a fundraiser that had raised just $60 to help sponsor her participation in an upcoming cheer camp in Fort Worth.
Recent social media photos capture a vibrant young girl full of potential—a future tragically cut short.
R’Mani had apparently celebrated her fifth birthday the day before she was slain, according to a Facebook post that described the killing as “heartless.” The same post indicated the rapper known as Lil Ronnie “literally went viral last month.”
A photo of Smith shows him proudly holding his daughter in his arms, wearing a large gold medallion attached to a thick necklace. Smith’s post on Valentine’s Day went viral after he stepped up as a father figure for his daughter’s friend whose parent was absent from a “Donuts With Daddy” event at her school.
Authorities have not yet disclosed a possible motive for the slayings, which accounted for the third and fourth fatal shootings in Forest Hill in under two weeks, shaking the small suburb of 14,000 residents just south of Fort Worth.
On Feb. 21, a former employee opened fire at RK Auto Sales on Mansfield Highway, killing two men in a deadly workplace shooting, police said. In a separate incident on Feb. 22, a 36-year-old woman was cut down in her backyard by a stray bullet. So far, no arrests have been announced in that case.
A spokesperson for Slappy’s Car Wash issued a statement expressing the company’s condolences, stating that employees would be keeping the victims and their families in their prayers.
“We are shocked, appalled and deeply troubled by the senseless and violent events that occurred today. Right now, there are more questions than answers,” the spokesperson wrote.
