Canadian rapper Smoke Dawg has reportedly died after being shot in Toronto, according to ET Canada. He was 21.
Following news of a shooting in the city’s entertainment district on Saturday, June 30, a verified police account on Twitter confirmed that one male victim was pronounced dead. Though they have yet to release the identity of the man killed, graphic images and videos of what appears to be the rapper lying in a pool of blood surfaced on Twitter.
Drake later posted a heartfelt tribute to Smoke Dawg — who opened up for him during his 2017 Boy Meets World European tour — in an Instagram Story alongside a photo of the two.
“All these gifts and blessed souls and inner lights being extinguished lately is devastating,” the 31-year-old “God’s Plan” singer wrote. “I wish peace would wash over our city.”
He continued: “So much talent and so many stories we never get to see play out. Rest up Smoke.”
An artist who goes by the name Mustafa the Poet also took to Twitter to pay his respects. “The worst day of my life, I somehow keep finding a new worst,” he wrote adding, “Smokey is gone, may our prayers follow him to heaven.”
Police confirmed that the shooting took place just before 8 p.m. in the popular area outside Cube nightclub and that the “suspects may have fled in black SUV or white car.”
According to local news CP24, “gunfire erupted in broad daylight on one of the busiest streets in the city Saturday evening.”
A spokesperson for the Toronto Paramedic Services told Canada’s Global News “that two male patients were taken to a trauma centre by their crews in life-threatening condition,” following the incident, adding that a “third victim, a woman who is believed to be in her 30s, was taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.” Both of the men later died at the hospital.
The outlet reported that as of Saturday night police had not released descriptions of the suspects.
Smoke Dawg’s death comes shortly after the murder of XXXTentacion, who was shot dead in Florida on June 18.
