A popular Atlanta-area rapper facing a murder charge in the shooting death of his cousin was denied bond Wednesday in DeKalb County court, records show.
Ricky Lamar Hawk, who goes by the stage name Silento, has been in jail since February after authorities linked him to the fatal shooting of 34-year-old Frederick Rooks. The rapper, best known for his hit song and viral dance craze “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” has long struggled with mental health issues, according to his publicist Chanel Hudson.
In a statement pushing for Hawk’s release, Hudson said it is impossible to improve a person’s mental health while isolating them “alone in a jail cell.”
“If offenders are such a risk to their community to where they are denied bond, why not remand them to a secure mental health facility under the court’s supervision, where they can be properly treated,” Hudson wrote Thursday in a statement posted to social media.
Rooks’ body was discovered Jan. 21 lying in the road outside a home in the Panthersville area. The 34-year-old had gunshot wounds to his face and leg, and investigators found eight shell casings lying nearby, according to a police report.
Responding officers were able to gather video from several nearby security cameras, according to the report. The video showed multiple cars leave the scene at high speeds, and the footage captured at least one gunshot. Authorities have not released a motive in the deadly shooting.
Hawk, a graduate of Redan High School in DeKalb, rose to fame as a teenage rap sensation in 2015. His “Watch Me” video has been viewed nearly 1.8 billion times on YouTube.
After its release, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he put the song on YouTube to prove his doubters wrong after losing his high school talent show. He released his first album, “Fresh Outta High School,” in August 2018, several years after the meteoric rise of his first single.
The rapper has also been open about his mental health struggles.
In 2019, Hawk appeared on an episode of “The Doctors” talk show to discuss his battle with depression, which he said was never diagnosed. The pressure only intensified after the success of “Watch Me,” he said in a videotaped interview.
“I’ve been fighting demons my whole life. My whole life,” Hawk said. “I was born with weed, coke, heroin, pills, all type of drugs in my system. I saw family members talking to walls. I watched family members fight. I watched family members try to kill each other. Nobody should have to watch that.”
Hawk said he wanted to publicly acknowledge his mental health issues as a first step to seeking professional help and to encourage others to do the same.
The rapper ran into trouble multiple times in the months leading up to his murder charge. He was arrested twice in one week in August on domestic violence and gun charges in California. And in late October, he was booked into the DeKalb jail on charges that he was driving more than 140 mph on I-85. According to a police report, he told officers that he was speeding because people were following him.
His murder case is still pending in DeKalb County Superior Court.
— Staff writers Henri Hollis and Chelsea Prince contributed to this article.
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