Atlanta rapper Young Scooter has died after attempting to flee police during a response to a 911 call in the city. The incident took place on March 28 which was also Scooter’s 39th birthday.
According to the Atlanta Police Department, officers arrived at a house on William Nye Drive following reports of a dispute involving a weapon. The caller also claimed that shots had been fired and that a woman had been dragged back inside the home.
When police knocked, a man briefly opened the door before closing it on them. Two men then fled from the rear of the property. One returned. The other, who was later identified as Scooter jumped two fences while trying to escape and was later found by police with a serious leg injury. Officers rendered aid before he was transported to Grady Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police clarified that the injury occurred while fleeing and was not caused by officers.
Scooter, born Kenneth Edward Bailey, came up in the early 2010s alongside Future and Young Thug. He later signed to Future’s Freebandz label in 2012 and released a string of mixtapes that built him a loyal following in Atlanta’s underground scene. He also had ties to Waka Flocka Flame’s Brick Squad Monopoly.
His collaboration’s with Future later became frequent and always unfiltered, including a feature on Future and Juice WRLD’s ‘Jet Lag’. He also appeared on Young Thug’s 2016 track ‘Guwop’ with Quavo and Offset.
Tributes have since come in from wide across the rap world. Playboi Carti reacted with a blunt “SMFH” on Instagram. Quavo later posted a short clip of Scooter performing, writing “ion understand” alongside broken-heart emojis.
While Scooter never made it into the mainstream, he stayed pretty consistent throughout. Quietly shaping the Atlanta trap scene for over a decade, he will be missed by many.
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