MIAMI – It didn’t take long for Kodak Black’s fans to defend him after he displayed aggression outside of the Broward County jail on Wednesday afternoon in Fort Lauderdale.
The troubled 26-year-old rapper from Pompano Beach threatened to punch Local 10 reporter Rosh Lowe in response to his questions on behalf of his fans.
One of the rocks that the rapper picked up from the ground and threw while outside of the Broward Main Jail hit Photojournalist Bryan Murphy in the ribs.
Murphy filed an incident report with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, but he decided not to press charges for the attack. Some of his fans were still upset and sent threats to both Murphy and Lowe online.
Reporters routinely speak to people leaving jail, and many times they don’t want to be on video, but an attack with authorities nearby is rare — even for public figures.
Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez had ruled in federal court in Miami that the rapper be released after he spent about two months behind bars for a probation violation. He pleaded guilty to failure to report police contact and got credit for time served.
Earlier this month in Broward County court, Circuit Judge Barbara Duffy dismissed a drug possession case against the rapper after a Plantation police arrest in December. Attorney Bradford Cohen, who was representing him, presented a 2022 oxycodone prescription that a pharmacy had filled.
The rapper’s legal troubles continued even after then-President Donald Trump commuted his three-year prison sentence in 2021 over a federal weapons charge conviction.
Kodak Black, whose migrant single mother Marcelene Octave was born in Haiti, grew up poor in Golden Acres, a public housing project in Pompano Beach.
Also known as Dieuson Octave and later Bill Kapri, the rapper co-parents with different women. He has a son named King Khalid and two daughters named Queen Yuri and Izzy. A pregnant woman, who was with the defense in federal court in Miami, said she was expecting the rapper’s fourth child — a son named Prince.
The self-made rapper found success with his 2014 hit “No Flockin” and his 2022 “Super Gremlin” was a Billboard Hot 100 No. 3. He released a YouTube video for “Shampoo” on Monday. By Wednesday, it ranked top 16 on the worldwide platform.
“I’ve been smoking ... I’ve been drinking ... whipping up a dope cake,” the rapper sings on his new song.
Inconsistencies with court-ordered drug tests already resulted in rehab and a warrant, records show. His defense has claimed his use of the narcotic stemmed from pain management after a prison beating in 2020 and being shot in the leg during Justin Bieber’s afterparty in 2022 in California.
TIMELINE: ARREST RECORD
2015
- Broward County: The case was for assault, robbery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, driving with a suspended license, and possession of marijuana.
- St. Lucie County: The case was for marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia.
2016
- Florence, South Carolina: The case was for a sexual battery
- The case was for possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana, and fleeing from law enforcement.
2018
- Broward: The case was for grand theft of a firearm, possession of marijuana, child neglect, two counts of possession of a weapon by a felon, and two counts of probation violation.
2019
- The case was for a federal weapons charge related to a U.S.-Canada border search
- The case was for a federal weapons charge related to the purchase in Miami-Dade
2022
- Broward: Trespassing in Pompano Beach
- The case was for a drug possession charge related to a Florida Highway Patrol search.