Rapper’s Nephew Held in Slaying

A nephew of rap artist D.J. Quik shot and killed one of Quik’s employees at the rapper’s home, apparently after a long-running rivalry flared out of control, police said Wednesday.

Thaddeus Davis, 22, was booked on suspicion of murder in the death of Darryl Reed, 36, described as a personal assistant to the rapper, authorities said. Davis, identified by police as a nephew of the rapper, was held in lieu of $1-million bail at the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Jail.

Investigators said the shooting occurred Tuesday about 11:50 p.m., when Davis and Reed were apparently alone downstairs. When the shots were fired, the rapper, whose real name is David Blake, ran downstairs to see Davis standing in the living room with a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, said Det. Andrew Purdy.

Davis fled and Blake and another occupant of the house found Reed wounded in the backyard. Blake, a friend of Reed’s since childhood, and the other occupant pulled Reed into a car and rushed him to Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Woodland Hills, where he died in surgery, authorities said.

Police spotted Davis in the parking lot of a mall and took him into custody after a brief foot chase.

Investigators are still considering a motive, but said Davis and Reed had been enemies for several years.

“It was like oil and water,” Purdy said.

The attack may have begun in a room where the rapper had placed a pingpong table, Purdy said. Davis apparently shot Reed once there, and then pursued him into the living room, where he shot Reed again, Purdy said. That was apparently when Blake came downstairs and Davis fled, he said.

Neighbors said Blake leased the 2,600-square-foot home about six months ago, and that he often hosts loud, late-night parties, sometimes with a bonfire in the backyard.

Blake, an acclaimed rapper and producer who records for New York-based Profile Records, could not be reached for comment.

Blake’s manager, Stan Sheppard, said, “We’re still trying to sort out the details” of the shooting. “Right now, everyone’s in a state of shock.”

He disagreed that Reed and Davis were rivals. “There was no long-term animosity,” he said.