Rapper Lil Tjay is making “significant” progress after being shot last week in the Edgewater area of New Jersey and undergoing emergency surgery.
According to TMZ, the 21-year-old rapper is now awake, alert, and able to communicate on his own. Doctors recently removed his breathing tube, and he now sounds as much as he did before he was shot.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit arrested the alleged shooter of the “Run It Up” rapper a day after the news broke. The suspect is 27-year-old Mohamed Konate, and according to local police, the shooting occurred after Konate attempted to rob the rapper. According to TMZ, he is now facing charges of attempted murder and armed robbery.
Jeffrey Valdez and Antoine Boyd, two other men associated with Lil Tjay, were also arrested and charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon. During the robbery incident, Boyd was also shot.
The arrests are the result of an investigation by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, led by Chief Jason Love, and the Edgewater Police Department, under the direction of Chief Donald Martin.
On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, shortly after midnight, the Edgewater Police Department received multiple 911 calls reporting shots fired in the area of 14 The Promenade in Edgewater, New Jersey Officers arrived to find Tione “Lil TJay” Merritt, 21, with multiple gunshot wounds, and Antoine Boyd, with a single gunshot wound.
When the shooting occurred, Mohamed Konate was attempting to commit armed robbery against Tione Merritt, Jeffrey Valdez, and Antoine Boyd, according to an investigation conducted by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and the Edgewater Police Department. Jefferey Valdez and Antoine Boyd, who were with Tione Merritt “Lil Tjay”, were both found with an illegal weapon in their possession.