Hip-hop personality Taxstone was arrested Monday in connection with last May’s fatal shooting at a T.I. concert in Irving Plaza — after cops...
The shooting in the third-floor green room at the East Village concert venue left three people wounded, including rapper Troy Ave, who was publicly feuding with Taxstone. Troy Ave’s bodyguard Ronald McPhatter was killed.
Taxstone, 31, whose real name is Daryl Campbell, now faces federal weapon possession charges.
He is slated to appear in federal court Tuesday.
Campbell had been under scrutiny for months for his involvement in the high-profile shooting, a police source said.
He was arrested at his aunt’s house in East New York, Brooklyn, the sources said.
He did not say a word when he was escorted by detectives from the 13th Precinct stationhouse in Gramercy Park.
“He will be arraigned tomorrow,” Campbell's defense attorney Ken Montgomery said. “We look forward to reading the complaint from the government.”
Troy Ave, whose real name Roland Collins, has been free on $500,000 bail following the shooting. He is accused of attempted murder in the shooting. He was shot in the leg and claims he wrestled the gun away from the man who killed McPhatter and fired back in self-defense.
Campbell, who hosts a podcast called “Tax Season,” taunted Collins prior to the shooting, saying in one recording that was posted on YouTube and cited in the complaint: “Tell 'em try me. I want to embarrass somebody. And that's why I started Bullying Troy Ave, you know what I mean?"
The complaint against Campbell does not name Campbell as McPhatter’s killer, but it alleges that Campbell’s DNA appears on the murder weapon, along with DNA from McPhatter and Collins.
The complaint refers to Collins only as “Individual.”
The gun, a black .9-mm Kel-Tec, was bought in Florida, and the original owner admitted to leaving the weapon with one of Campbell’s associates in New York in October 2015, according to the complaint.
On Monday, Collins’ lawyer Scott Leemon declined to identify Campbell as the man who shot Collins and McPhatter.
“As I told you day one, Troy (Ave) was a victim,” Leemon said. “He was shot by someone else and his friend and bodyguard died a hero.”
Collins was shot again on Christmas Day while he was sitting with a female friend in a red Maserati on E. 91st St. and Linden Blvd. in East Flatbush.
Campbell was convicted in 2008 of weapons and robbery charges in Brooklyn, records show.
He served about 18 months of the original sentence and was then returned on a parole violation in 2010 and served eight more months. He returned to prison on another parole violation in 2012 and served 11 more days before his sentence was completed, records show.
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