SUV carrying Schoolboy Q is fired on; shooting panics concert crowd

Rapper Schoolboy Q was inside of the vehicle that a gunman opened fire on late Thursday outside of Red Rocks Amphitheater, injuring three other people, authorities said Friday.

Colorado authorities said they were searching for a man who was armed with a rifle in connection with the assault. The shooting took place after a hip-hop concert featuring Schoolboy Q and Nas at the famed Colorado music venue.

The gunman emerged from bushes outside of the venue around 10:30 p.m. and fired several rounds at a white SUV that rapper Schoolboy Q was riding in, according to Mark Techmeyer, a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

Techmeyer told the Los Angeles Times that Schoolboy Q, an L.A.-based hip-hop artist whose real name is Quincy Hanley, was in the vehicle but was not injured.

The driver of the vehicle drove it 15 miles into Denver, where it was stopped by local police, Techmeyer said.

All three victims were taken to Denver Health Medical Center and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, Techmeyer said.

Schoolboy Q was not driving the vehicle, and it was unclear if he was the target of the attack, according a sheriff’s office news release.

One of the victims was released from the hospital this morning, Techmeyer said. The victim’s identities and relationship to the rapper were being withheld, according to the release.

Thousands of people were at the venue Thursday night, which holds as many as 9,500 concertgoers.

The gunfire began as the show was ending. No one was injured, but the attack caused panic among the packed crowd, Techmeyer said.

The shooter fled back into the brush after opening fire, he said, and it remains unclear how he escaped.

“He ran off in the brush in the mountainous area, so we don’t know how he left, we don’t know if he had a car waiting for him or what,” Techmeyer said.

Schoolboy Q’s “Oxymoron” album, released in February, was one of the year’s most anticipated hip-hop offerings.

The album features 12 bass-heavy tracks in which the artist explores his rough-and-tumble early life hawking Oxycontin tablets on street corners near 51st Street and Hoover where he grew up in South L.A.

The arena said Friday’s concert, featuring Skrillex, a Grammy-award winning electronic musician, will go on as scheduled, according to an alert on its website. Parts of the arena, including the southern parking lot near where the shooting took place, will remain closed as the sheriff’s office continues its investigation, the alert said.

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