Red Rocks Shooting Intended Victim Was Schoolboy Q, Officials Believe

Thursday night the Red Rocks Amphitheater hosted the “Feed the Rocks” concert. The concert, featuring Schoolboy Q, Nas and Flying Lotus, was to benefit anti-gang groups in the area.

Shortly after the concert a man fired upon a white SUV. The SUV contained Schoolboy Q and several acquaintances. As a result of the shooting, three of the passengers were injured. Schoolboy Q was not one of them.

The Red Rocks Amphitheatre is roughly 15 miles outside of Denver and holds nearly 10,000 people. After the shooting occurred, police immediately issued a lockdown and SWAT members rushed the venue and parking lot. Every single car was searched. The last concert goers finally exited at around 3 am.

Schoolboy Q’s SUV fled the scene of the shooting. When police caught up with them, everyone in the vehicle was handcuffed. It is policy to detain anyone fleeing the scene of a shooting until police can be sure they are all victims.

It was found out that the SUV fled in order to bring the victims of the shooting to medical care. They were stopped while having difficulty finding the nearest hospital.

The names of the three men injured in the Red Rocks shooting were not released. None of them were fatally wounded, however, and one has already been released from the hospital.

Originally, the shooting was thought to be a random act of violence, but Jacki Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, told NBC News that evidence was leading to a different conclusion.

There’s a rising belief that Schoolboy Q was the intended target of the shooting.

“This is not a coincidence. We think there is probably more to it than that,” Kelley said. “It appears to be more targeted than random, based on what we’ve learned so far.”

In response to the Red Rocks shooting, Schoolboy Q announced that he was fine on Twitter.

im str8…… dont trip

— ScHoolboy Q (@ScHoolBoyQ) June 20, 2014

The suspect in the shooting is a 6? tall, African-American, male with access to a rifle. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s office has been requesting that anybody who attended the Red Rocks Amphitheatre on the night of the shooting, and was in the Trading Post or backstage areas between 9 and 11pm, please send any videos or images of the event to the sheriff’s office. For more details, call: 303-271-5612.

Red Rocks Amphitheatre event management has declared that none of their upcoming events will be cancelled and that they intend to add extra security for the future.

[ Image courtesy of Glen Ross ]