BRONX: Police on Saturday released images of the five muggers wanted for killing Los Angeles drill rapper Moneygang Vontae at a Bronx pharmacy.
Victim Avanti Frowner, 27, who raps under the Vontae stage name, was in New York City to scout out locations for a music video set to be filmed later in the month when he was killed at the Amazing Community Pharmacy on E. Tremont Ave. near Arthur Ave. in Tremont at about 1:40 p.m. Thursday, police said.
Vontae and a friend from California traveling with him were buying over-the-counter eye drops at the pharmacy when two of the five suspects approached, wanting to know if he wanted to buy some pot, police sources said.
The rapper declined, but the two weed sellers and three others demanded his property and his gold chain, which carried his signature nameplate, cops said.
Surveillance footage obtained by the Daily News shows Vontae and a man wearing a white T-shirt and white do-rag struggling inside the pharmacy as a terrified employee crouches behind the counter.
As an attacker forcefully pulls Vontae to the ground, three other suspects storm the store and pile on top of him while drug store employees run down a staircase into the basement, the video shows.
The employee crouched behind the counter and moves to the back of the store while one of the men hit Vontae over the head with a long umbrella.
The do-rag-wearing assailant fumbled with a gun before he shot the drill rapper several times.
As Vontae laid on the floor of the pharmacy bleeding, he fired another shot into his chest before he took off with the massive “Moneygang Vontae” nameplate from his neck, cops said.
EMS rushed Vontae to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died.
By Rocco Parascandola and Thomas Tracy [Daily News]
