MIAMI BEACH, Fla. ā Prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a Brooklyn rapper who was accused killing a man in fight over aĀ parking spot in Miami Beach.
The incidentĀ was citedĀ by supporters of a Miami Beach referendum that would haveĀ curtailed alcohol sales at outdoor venues along Ocean Drive. The referendum failed to pass in November.
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Miami Beach police had said thatĀ 19-year-old Jeffery Alexander shot and killed LadarianĀ Phillips on May 28 along Ocean DriveĀ during Urban Beach Weekend.
Court records show that the charges were quietly dropped in October after Alexander spent several months in jail. Alexander recently posted a photo of himself in a prison jumpsuit on Instagram, celebrating the release of his new album.
"They tried to count me out, but Iām too blessed. The General is home, back to business," Alexander wrote on InstagramĀ in early November.Ā
The Miami Herald first reported the dropped charges.
Police said Alexander, whoĀ goes by several stage names, including 22Gz and Tutu Blicky, was a passenger inside a BMW when its driver tried to parallelĀ parkĀ near a gold Buick.
Police said the BMW struck the Buick several times, prompting the Buick's owner, Edward Ellis, and his friend, Phillips, to confront the people inside the BMW.
The argument escalated and someone inside the BMW shot Ellis and Phillips several times, police said. Phillips later died of his wounds, but Ellis survived.Ā
Police said the BMW sped away from the scene andĀ crashedĀ through two Miami Beach patrol cars. Police said they attempted to stop the BMW again, and two officers fired several shots at the car. The driver was killed and Alexander and two other passengersĀ wereĀ eventually arrested.
But prosecutors found that the driver, whoĀ has never been identified by police, was actually the gunman and dropped the charges against Alexander.
Ellis had told police that Alexander was the gunman.
āHowever, physical evidence and statements of other witnesses contradict what the surviving victim states,ā the prosecutors wrote in a memo,Ā according to the Herald.