Eight years after he was acquitted of a murder charge, a South Side drill rapper with close ties to Chicago musician Lil Durk was shot to death in Little Village over the weekend.
Devonsha Collier, 35, who recorded under the name “THF Bayzoo,” was shot and fatally wounded about 3 p.m. Saturday in the 3100 block of South St. Louis Avenue, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Two other men, ages 39 and 42, were also wounded in the shooting, according to police. Collier was pronounced dead early Sunday at Mount Sinai Hospital and his death was later ruled a homicide. No suspects were in custody as of Monday.
Surveillance footage that purports to show the shooting was quickly leaked to social media sites popular with fans of Chicago’s drill rap scene. The footage shows two gunmen run up to Collier and two others before opening fire from just a few feet away.
In 2014, Collier was arrested at the Orland Park home of Lil Durk — born Durk Banks — and charged with murder in the 2009 shooting death of a man in Bronzeville. Banks, on probation at the time for a pending weapons charge, was also arrested though later cleared.
Collier was accused of killing 21-year-old Dominic Barnes in the 4700 block of South Forrestville Avenue during the Fourth of July holiday weekend in 2009. During Collier’s initial court appearance, prosecutors said he approached Barnes and asked him about his gang affiliation before shooting him. Prosecutors said several witnesses saw Collier fire the fatal shots.
Court records show a Cook County jury found Collier not guilty in December 2017. In the years since, he faced at least two other felony gun cases. Court records show the charges were dropped in one case, and Collier was found not guilty in the other.
Collier is at least the fourth close associate of Banks to be shot to death in the last 10 years.
Banks’ former manager, Uchenna Agina, who went by “Chino,” was shot and killed in 2015 outside a restaurant in the Avalon Park community when a gunman approached and opened fire, according to police.
In 2020, fellow Chicago drill rapper King Von — born Dayvon Bennett, a protege of Lil Durk — was shot and killed in Atlanta. The following year, Lil Durk’s brother was fatally shot outside a nightclub in south suburban Harvey.
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles now allege that the shooting of King Von prompted Lil Durk to fund a murder-for-hire plot in revenge for the killing. Lil Durk has remained in federal lockup in Los Angeles for a year, and his trial is expected to commence in 2026.
An attorney for Lil Durk did not respond to a request for comment.