A second suspect has been charged in the 2018 fatal daylight shootings of Toronto rapper Smoke Dawg and hip-hop manager Koba Prime.
Smoke Dawg, a 21-year-old rising star from Regent Park named Jahvante Smart who was a protege of global superstar Drake, and manager Ernest Modekwe were gunned down on Queen St. W. Canada Day weekend in a slaying captured in part on surveillance cameras.
A news release issued by Toronto Police on Thursday afternoon said a suspect wanted in the slayings was arrested on Jan. 27 by Airdrie RCMP. Airdrie is near Calgary.
The suspect, who was a youth at the time of the fatal shootings, can’t be named per the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The suspect is facing two counts of first-degree murder for the homicides of Smart, 21, and Modekwe, 28, as well as one charge of attempted murder.
The accused appeared via video link in Ontario court on Thursday.
Per the Toronto Star, Airdrie RCMP officers said they were conducting speed enforcement patrols north of Calgary last Monday and stopped a vehicle with an illegal window tint for speeding.
Police arrested the female driver and a man in the vehicle after they found items they believed may be linked to crime.
The man tried to flee on foot during the arrest but was caught and found with a loaded gun, the RCMP said.
Investigators said the man had shown them fake identification and was a suspect wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in the 2018 high-profile Toronto slayings.
The suspect was charged with 13 additional criminal offences, including five tied to firearms and three related to identity fraud, the Star reported.
Abdulkadir Handule, the first suspect arrested in the Toronto killings, was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder by a jury in early 2022. That conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for between 10 and 25 years.
Smart was an MC associated with the Regent Park-based Halal Gang, a crew once involved in an ongoing feud with the Sick Thugz — a splinter group of the now-defunct Point Blank Soldiers, linked with the 2005 Boxing Day shootout that claimed the life of 15-year-old Jane Creba.
Smart toured with Drake during his 2017 “Boy Meets World” tour.