Cedron Doles was a controversial rapper with reputed ties to a gang faction called Black Mobb who earned a following in Chicago's drill music scene by taunting gang rivals, some of them slain, with his lyrics.
Doles, who performed under the name Shootashellz, likely made enemies with his lyrics in a music video posted to YouTube in April 2017.
Titled "Death of 150," the video talked of the Black Mobb's long-standing feud with the rival gang No Limit, also known as No Limit 150.
About three months later, on a July morning, Doles, 21, was about to get into his car in Chicago's Auburn Gresham community when three men emerged from a white Nissan Altima and opened fire. Riddled with bullets, Doles collapsed and died in the street.
Police recovered 43 shell casings near his body.
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Doles' violent death drew little attention except from a few rap music websites, just one of 13 people shot in Chicago on that day, one other fatally. His brazen slaying, though, appears to be typical of the gang violence plaguing Chicago — much of it retaliatory in nature, sometimes the result of petty disputes fueled over social media between rivals from even the same gangs but different factions, authorities say.
Records recently unsealed in federal court show that two months before Doles' slaying, the FBI had joined forces with Chicago police to investigate the yearslong, back-and-forth violence between Black Mobb and No Limit.
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The filing sought court permission about a year after Doles' killing to search the contents of an iPhone 7 Plus recovered from his pants pocket.
In the year and a half since, no charges have been brought in connection with Doles' slaying. The investigation remains ongoing, police said.
Meanwhile, federal authorities have brought separate indictments since last year against members of the Milwaukee Kings gang and the Goonie Boss faction of the Gangster Disciples for more than a dozen killings combined.
According to the court record unsealed last month, witnesses reported seeing Doles leave a residence with another individual about 9:30 a.m. on July 10, 2017.
Credit: Courtesy of YouTube
Credit: Courtesy of YouTube
As Doles was about to enter his car down the block toward 82nd Street, the three assailants approached — it was unclear from the filing if they happened by in the Altima or were lying in wait — and fired off 43 shots.
The three suspects sped away, the FBI said.
"Based upon my training and experience, and the training and experience of other law enforcement officers that I have discussed this with, I believe that the Doles murder was a targeted effort," FBI Special Agent Ian Hallenius wrote in the affidavit seeking a search warrant for Doles' cellphone.
An autopsy report laid out the grim details. Doles was shot in the head, chest, right arm, right thigh, right foot, right calf and buttocks. He also suffered graze wounds to his left forearm and right wrist.
For several months leading up to his death, Doles could be heard online in the "Death of 150" music video holding what the FBI said appeared to be a handgun.
In the court filing, the FBI said Doles and others directed "numerous menacing threats" in the song toward No Limit, including three slain members of the gang.
"Tell Roc, Kobe, Fazo, you gonna see them soon," Doles rapped.
The FBI believes the song referred to:
- Jamal Harris, 19, who was killed in a shooting in February 2012 outside a liquor store in the South Shore community that also left another man dead and five teenage boys wounded.
- Jacobi Herring, 21, who was fatally shot in August 2013 at East 79th Street and South Yates Boulevard, an area known to residents as "Terror Town" because of its incessant gun violence and gang activity.
- Fazon Robinson, 18, who was gunned down along 79th Street in 2010.
Less than a month before Doles was fatally shot, he told a hip-hop video blogger about the violence in his South Side neighborhood and how retaliatory shootings won't stop until enemies put their differences aside.
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