Charles Jones – better known as Julio Foolio – has died. He was 26 years old.
The Jacksonville, Florida rapper was shot and killed Sunday morning in Tampa, Florida, his attorney, Lewis Fusco, confirmed to NBC News.
Police responded to reports of a shooting at a hotel in uptown Tampa a few hours before sunrise. When they arrived at the scene, they found two vehicles in the parking lot that had been shot at. Jones was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Tampa Police Department. Three additional victims are in stable condition and receiving treatment at a local hospital.
Before his death, Jones posted footage to his Instagram Story that showed him advertising a Saturday night pool party, inviting his one million followers to direct message him with the address. Later that night, he posted that the police “shut us down and kicked us out” of the Airbnb.
His lawyer then released a statement that Jones had moved to a Holiday Inn after the Airbnb incident. It was there, in the hotel parking lot, that he was allegedly ambushed.
“Best birthday ever 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞 thank you to everyone who stopped, we showed up until we couldn’t anymore,” Jones wrote in an Instagram Story just hours before the shooting. “We’re going to the show, now you guys are going up.”
The Tampa Police Department is actively investigating the motive for the shooting and working to identify the individuals involved.
Jones, who had nearly a million monthly listeners on Spotify at the time of his death, had been making music since 2015. In April, when announcing the release of his latest album, ResurrectionJones posted that he had previously survived people who tried to kill him.
“THESE LAST COUPLE MONTHS/YEARS OF MY LIFE HAVE BEEN TRAGIC,” he wrote in Instagram on April 4th. “GOD IS TRYING TO SEND ME A MESSAGE MULTIPLE ATTEMPTS IN MY LIFE I keep surviving..I keep losing my ASS TO JAIL AND CEMETERIES BUT I KNOW THE HIGHEST ONE DOING EVERYTHING FOR A REASON HE LET ME WALK AGAIN FOR A REASON.”
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