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Meek Mill Concert Shooting Leaves 2 Dead: Rapper Calls Deaths ‘A Lie,’ Then Deletes Post

By Roz Zurko
Published on: 02:47 PST, Jan 1, 2017

A Meek Mill concert was letting out when a shooting erupted in the crowd leaving two men dead outside the rapper’s Connecticut show. Police were called to this scene of violence at just a few minutes after 11 p.m. on Friday. The shooter is still at large today, despite the many roadblocks put in place around the Wallingford, Connecticut, theater where both the Meek Mill concert and shooting took place.

Two men are dead, and two more men were injured in a shooting after gunfire erupted outside the Connecticut concert hall where rapper Meek Mill had just walked off the stage and exited the building. A video taken by one of the people at the concert shows Meek Mill exiting the building when the sounds of gunfire rang out, causing chaos outside the Oakdale Theater’s doors.

According to the New York Daily News, the parking lot area of the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford was packed with people waiting for Meek Mill to leave the venue when the shooting started. A security guard stationed outside the Meek Mill concert is heard on a video yelling to the crowd to “get down” as soon as the shooting started. That video was taken by a fan who attended the concert and who was outside at the time waiting to get a glimpse of Mill leaving the building. The urgency in the security guard’s voice is heard as he bellowed out the warning, “get down guys, just get down, stay down, you’re fine, you’re fine,” and then the video cuts out.

Meek Mill is described as “a controversial rapper known for his complicated relationship with Nicki Minaj and Drake feud,” according to the website Heavy. It is believed that Nicki Minaj did not attend Meek Mill’s Connecticut show. They also report that the motive for this shooting and the identity of the shooter is “not clear.” A man is heard on another video taken outside the Meek Mill concert saying “There goes Meek” and then a gunshot rings out.

Mill’s concert was in Wallingford, Connecticut, at a venue set in a rural section of the state. This is not an area that’s prone to gunfire ringing out in the night, never mind a shooting leaving deaths in its wake. The Oakdale Theater prides itself on family-friendly surroundings. It is a place that’s well-known for hosting family oriented entertainment, along with concerts across all genres, according to the website, Oakdale Theater.

The two men killed have been identified by police as Travis Ward, 31, and Jacquan Graves, 20, both who lived in New Haven, Connecticut, reports My Record Journal. Two unidentified males were taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries from this shooting. Both men were treated and released on Saturday.

There was a “huge presence” of law enforcement from neighboring towns and cities immediately following the shooting. Roadblocks were set-up on the roads that lead from the Oakdale Theater, but the unknown suspect in the shooting was not caught.

The MTV Artists website describes Meek Mills as “one of the most combative and commercially successful rappers of his time,” cites the Heavy. In between recording his songs, Meek did time in prison. He also recorded some of his music while at home on house arrest. The on-going feud between Meek and fellow rapper Drake has taken place as a war of words on Twitter. Mill has accused Drake of not writing his own rap songs.

After the shooting, Meek Mill posted a video clip on Instagram in the early morning hours of Saturday. In that clip, he calls the reports of two people being killed in a shooting at his Connecticut concert “a lie.” Later in the day that video was deleted.

Neighbors of the Oakdale Theater were surprised by the violence. David Phipps, who lives nearby the theater, had no idea a shooting took place until a local reporter from My Record Journal approached him for a comment. Phipps said that he had to consider this shooting a “one-time incident.” He also said the neighborhood has had “absolutely no problems” coming from the theater in the past. There’s been no gunfire, violence or shootings. When a couple of the neighbors heard the gunfire, they thought it was fireworks and not a shooting because it is not an area that has experienced this type of violence.

[Featured Image by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP Image]

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