Rapper feud spilled onto Florida highway, ending in 6 women being shot in van, cops say

A social media feud between rappers Jackboy and Kodak Black engulfed motorists on a Florida highway in 2023, resulting in gang members shooting at the wrong vehicle, investigators discovered.

Six innocent women were hit by armor-piercing rifle rounds, one of whom died, according to the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.

The motive of the shooters was revealed Feb. 26, when the sheriff’s office announced 13 people had been arrested in connection with the deadly drive-by.

Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma says the suspects believed they were shooting at rapper Jackboy’s entourage, as he left one of his shows.

Instead, Jackboy was in an SUV in front of the mistakenly targeted Mercedes-Benz van, Lemma said.

The drive-by happened at about 2:20 a.m. on Jan. 16, 2023, after a Jackboy concert at The Barn in Sanford, about 25 miles north of Orlando.

The 13 people in the targeted van were friends who had attended Jackboy’s concert, officials said. The woman who died has been identified as Princess Tolliver, 31, a civilian employee of the Florida State University Police Department, officials said.

Lemma called the case of mistaken identity “incredibly frightening” for the victims and the witnesses.

“Our detectives have determined that none of the victims were the intended target that night,” Lemma said at a news conference.

“We found that the likely motive for the incident stemmed from a very public, high-profile dispute playing out on social media and in the court system involving Jackboy and a known associate of the shooters, another rap artist Bill Kapri, known by the stage name Kodak Black.”

There is no evidence Kapri is “directly linked to this crime” and he faces no charges, officials said.

Eleven of the 13 people who have been arrested are members of a street gang known as OTF (“On Top Forever”), which is known to have members in Seminole County, officials said.

The arrests, which began Feb. 23, were made after an investigation that included more than 120 search warrants.

All the suspects are considered “incredibly dangerous individuals” and have a prior criminal history, officials said.

Among the charges filed are murder, attempted murder, racketeering and car theft, the sheriff’s office said. “Two female suspects were also charged with related offenses,” officials said.

One man remains at large and is wanted on charges that include first-degree premeditated murder, officials said.

The shooters staged the drive-by while traveling in four vehicles, two of which were stolen, officials said.

Investigators don’t believe the suspects were paid for their involvement, but they may have been “looking for street validation” for their newly established organization, officials said.

“It was clear they had been watching this very public debate between Kodak Black and Jackboy ... and probably took this as an opportunity to make a name for themselves,” the sheriff said.

This story was originally published February 27, 2024 at 5:16 AM with the headline "Rapper feud spilled onto Florida highway, ending in 6 women being shot in van, cops say."