Rapper Charged After Admitting To Fatal Shooting On Rap Video: Sheriff

LAKELAND, FL — A self-proclaimed 19-year-old rapper was arrested Tuesday after Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said he bragged on one of his rap videos about shooting a man in the back.

La’Darion Chandler of Lakeland was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of opposing gang member 33-year-old John Daniel McGee, also known as Bang Bang, of Lakeland on Dec. 17. McGee was released from prison on Oct. 8 after serving a four- or five-year stint.

During a news conference Thursday morning, Judd said McGee was shot in the back while running from the shooter in a parking lot on Pirates Way in the Secret Cove subdivision. McGee was taken to the hospital, where he initially survived the shooting.

Although a crowd of people was on hand at the scene of the shooting when sheriff's deputies arrived, Judd said none would provide detectives with information.

"There were 200 people at the scene of the shooting and they all were in the bathroom when it happened and didn't see a thing," Judd said.

Detectives turned to McGee, who was expected to survive, for information about the shooter, but he, too, refused to talk, said the sheriff.

"He would not cooperate in the investigation and he lied to us," Judd said.

Moreover, Judd said McGee began refusing the medication intended to help heal his gunshot wound.

"He was going to go back and seek revenge on his own against this opposing gang member and refused to talk because he didn't want him (the shooter) locked up where he couldn't get to him," Judd said.

Twenty-four days after the shooting, on Jan. 9, McGee died in the hospital.

"He took to his death the (name of the) person who shot him," said Judd. "He (McGee) was a troublemaker, make no mistake about it. But he shouldn't have died."

The sheriff said the case might have gone unsolved if Chandler hadn't posted the rap video describing shooting McGee in the back, giving details only the shooter would know.

"He's not much of a rapper. He doesn't sing well. He doesn't move well. He's a stupid rapper who admits to shooting someone in the back on video," Judd said.

Judd provided a copy of the video to members of the media in which Chandler raps, "I hit his back Though I shoot like a mac."

Although only 19 years old, Judd said Chandler already had an extensive criminal history, including seven felony arrests and five misdemeanor arrests. His first arrest was at the age of 11. He'd been released from the Juvenile Detention Center 32 days before shooting McGee.

"He was a hardcore criminal as a juvenile who posted a photo of himself with a gun right after his third stint in lockup," Judd said. "He was bad and mean in the streets when he had a gun."

Judd said witnesses were too frightened to talk. Without tips from the public, Judd said it took detectives 2 1/2 months to build a criminal case against Chandler.

During that period, Chandler was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after pointing a gun at another man on Pirates Way. He was in jail when detectives served him with the first-degree murder warrant.

"Then he started crying like a baby that lost its pacifier," Judd said. "Let the message be clear: we ripped this rapper, and now he's in jail."

He said the sheriff's office is continuing to search for the gun used in McGee's shooting. Detectives served a search warrant on Chandler's apartment and discovered ammunition in a black duffel bag but no gun.

"We will pay $5,000 to recover the gun used in this homicide. Contact Heartland Crime Stoppers. We get the gun, and you get a whole lot of cash," he said. "We want the gun that killed John McGee."

This shooting is one of four gang shootings that occurred in Polk County over the last two months, including a mass shooting in Lakeland in which 11 people were killed or injured.

Related:

• Bullets Injure 2 Children, Teen During 2 Drive-By Shootings In Polk
• Car In Drive-By Shooting Of 11 Men Found, $5K Reward: Lakeland Police
• 1 Dead, 2 Critically Injured In Shooting At Home In Poinciana: Video
• Suspect In Lakeland Mass Shooting Killed While Fleeing From Police
• 10 Hurt In Lakeland Mass Shooting; Police Suspect Link To Drug Sales

In 2017, there were just two drive-by shootings in Polk County, said the sheriff. In 2022, there were 59 drive-by shootings.

"You hear all this and you go, 'My gosh, what's the matter here?" Judd said. "Actually, our crime rate is at a 51 percent low and our violent crime rate was down last year. This does not represent the crime picture. This represents a small group of gangsters that are shooting at each other."

If anything, Judd said, it's an indictment of the state's juvenile justice system, which gave Chandler numerous opportunities to turn his life around but ultimately put a violent offender back on the streets.

"This kid got the full measure of the system," he said, noting that Chandler was jailed three times in the juvenile justice system after being convicted of fleeing to elude, grand theft of a motor vehicle, vehicle burglary and delinquent in possession of a firearm or ammunition with a gang enhancement, earning him a year in juvenile detention.

"Many times the DJJ allows these violent, out-of-control criminal kids back on the streets," he said. "They can't tell the difference between a child who made a mistake and a hard-core-criminal. He (Chandler) shouldn't have been out to commit this crime. If this guy is not locked up, he's shooting somebody. This idea that you can hug a thug and they'll be good is ridiculous. You need to wake up. These are hard-core gang bangers."

Judd said Chandler is just one of many teens involved in violent gangs in Polk County, prompting the sheriff's office to announce the formation of a gang task force on Feb. 15 with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, FBI, Florida Attorney General's Office, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and police departments throughout Polk County.

"We're not going to allow kids to shoot kids or people to be shot by kids," Judd said. "We're just not going to allow that."