His MySpace page reads like a eulogy.
“R.I.P., Toro. I always thought you was next to blow. Only death could have stopped you,” a fellow artist writes. Underneath, a pretty girl laments, “It’s still not sinking in.”
The shooting of up-and-coming Opa-locka rapper Toro -- made big through his collaborations with Rick Ross and Brisco -- brought out the soft side of Miami’s rough-around-the-edges hip-hop scene this past week.
This much we know: Derek “Toro” Johnson, age 23, was shot dead near Coco’s strip club in North Miami at 4 a.m. Saturday. A silver sedan pulled up and unleashed a storm of bullets on his Cadillac Escalade, leaving him dead and an unnamed friend wounded. Afterward, the Escalade smashed into 24-year-old Elena Sebekos’s home on the 12000 block of NW Second Avenue.
What we don’t know is most important: Why?
Says Coco’s club manager Michael Benable: “We know an altercation took place at Club 112 beforehand. We're not sure what it was over.”
Rumors are now flying about a local turf feud. Toro was out distributing his CDs at a few venues the night of the murder, and apparently got into a dispute. Miami-Dade Police Det. Jaun Villalba could not yet release a full police report on the pending homicide case.
Anyone with more info, feel free to post.
