Law&Crime Sidebar - BONUS EPISODE: Rapper Blueface Accused of Shooting Man Over Joke About 'Cheap Vehicle'

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

Starting point is 00:00:35 keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Rapper Blueface is arrested in Las Vegas for attempted murder and we break down how this may have all went down with veteran Nevada law enforcement officer Ashton Pack. Welcome to Sidebar, Represented by law and crime, I'm Jesse Weber. Let's go over now to Las Vegas, where it's being reported that rapper Blueface has been arrested for attempted murder. Las Vegas Metro Police arrested the 25-year-old musician whose real name is Jonathan Order outside of a Lolo's chicken and waffle, seemingly in the middle of the day. Now, he had an open warrant for attempted murder with a deadly weapon and also discharging a firearm outside of an occupied structure.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Two very serious charges here, all in connection to a shooting that happened. back in October near Las Vegas Boulevard. So we wanted to get a little bit more perspective on how this might have went down. And I'm joined by a very special guest, Ashton Pack, who for 23 years served as a Nevada law enforcement officer. And Ashton was a strike team leader during the October 1st attack in Las Vegas in 2017. And Ashton joins us right now. Ashton, thanks so much for coming on.

Starting point is 00:01:50 Thank you so much for having me. I want to talk about this arrest because obviously there's so much we don't know. but when you look at it, you had plainclothes officers. It's seemingly the middle of the day. I think they said there was six to eight officers in unmarked cars. It seems like an undercover operation. Do you get that kind of impression? I mean, what were your initial impressions looking how this went down?

Starting point is 00:02:09 Well, after having done some research on this arrest, I'm pretty confident that that's probably one of our task force units that are operating here in the Las Vegas Valley. More than likely, that's the criminal apprehension team. That team's comprised of FBI agents, U.S. Marshals, and, of course, Detective from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department and all the surrounding cities that are here within the Las Vegas Valley known as Clark County. So I'm pretty confident to think that those cops, they operate in a, I hate to say undercover, but definitely a plainclose capacity, but yes, they are very able to kind of covertly switch between plainclothes and undercover

Starting point is 00:02:43 if they have to go and make an arrest. And that team, they really hunt, only wanted fugitives, active, active assailants that we absolutely have to get off the street in real time. The most violent of people are kind of covered by that team. Is that because of the charges here, or is that also, you think, because of the celebrity nature of this? I feel like that that might add a sensitivity to it as well. I'm going to lean towards the violent nature of these charges that have been leveled against this rapper.

Starting point is 00:03:13 Obviously, what in law enforcement, we know is a shooter, someone who's willing to engage people with a firearm, propensity for violence. Those are the kinds of people that those, like the criminal apprehension team, or any kind of fugitive task force are going to actively go out and try to take into custody once any warrants are approved by judges

Starting point is 00:03:30 and are active in the system. Hey guys, Sean Sticks Larkin here from On Patrol Live. The holiday season's upon us and if you're looking for that perfect gift to stuff down in that stocking or put under the tree for somebody else, pick up my book, Breaking Blue,

Starting point is 00:03:44 Real Life Stories of Cops Falsely Accused. It's a great read, something you don't want to miss. You can pick it up on Amazon. You know what was fascinating about it? there's this video, I think T.MZ was able to obtain it, where you actually see the officers and members of this team literally grabbing him out of the middle of nowhere, pushing him to the ground, onlookers come by, they're confused as what's happening. And all the officer said is

Starting point is 00:04:07 there was a warrant out for his arrest. The way they actually apprehended him, that aggressive nature, is that typical? Is that usually how it's done in these kinds of cases? Yes, absolutely. When you're dealing with someone who has that propensity for violence, someone who's willing to engage. We have to assume untrained, unarmed individuals that were shot at in this attempted murder case, even if they're rival gang members or rival criminals. Law enforcement has to take that a kind of assertive borderline aggressive stance when dealing with people who have that propensity for violence. And so, yeah, that surprise, that surprise of, I don't want to say violence, but that quick action, that tends to take any counter away from them trying, you know, if the

Starting point is 00:04:47 suspect is going to try to launch some kind of a counter assault or try to. to escape. These officers are going to want to get in there, these agents and detectives, they want to make it quick and over. They want this to be completely over in that subject in custody so that the rest of the public can go about their day, that that business can continue to operate, that the law enforcement officers can get that person out of the area and booked into jail so he can go and appear before a judge. Yeah, why do you think they did it in the middle of the day outside of this Lolo's chicken and waffles? I mean, again, Blueface and his girlfriend, Chris Sean Rock, were literally sitting on these benches looking at their phones and then out of nowhere

Starting point is 00:05:20 is when the team comes in. Is it literally you want to get somebody when they least expect it? Is it maybe there's less danger if something's happening in the middle of the day? Because I'm also thinking maybe you do it in the middle of the night at a certain part when there's less people around because you don't want to create a situation where it creates a danger to anybody in the outside or a business. Why do you think they did it at that time at that moment? Probably for the simple fact that they received information that he was going to be there. Sometimes I think we watch these shows and we watch movies where we have some amazing command center that operates 24-7 with like a 007Q that has all the information at tip of a finger at the Google search. It doesn't operate

Starting point is 00:05:57 like that in the real world of law enforcement. So if one of the agents, one of the detectives on the task force received information from a source or an informant that the subject was located at a business and he was outside waiting for a table, law enforcement has to make decisions in real time. And I agree with their get that guy in custody as quickly as possible. Use that benefit of surprise to take him into custody. His brain was probably still trying to figure out what was happening by the time the handcuffs are already on. That takes away any opportunity for him to escape or for him to launch, like I said, a counter assault against law enforcement. I don't think the law enforcement officers always love the location. You know, if we could pick it our way,

Starting point is 00:06:30 it'd be in the middle of the desert surrounded by a SWAT team, but we don't have that luxury all the time. So if the cops got the information that he's on a bench right now and they literally rally a team within 10, 15 minutes, they pull up and he's sitting on a bench. One of the bosses on that team made a command decision and say, hey, let's get them into custody now, make it quick, make it over, and let's get him to jail. Yeah, this isn't seven, although that didn't have a great outcome either, but you get what I'm trying to say. So what do you think was happening behind the scenes, right?

Starting point is 00:06:55 We know that there was this incident that happened, I believe October 8th of this year. What do you think was happening behind the scenes of the investigation between October and now? I'll give everybody an idea. So in the days after this alleged shooting, Blueface, he posted a clip from a music video for his song, Better Days 2, Pain in the Get. and he posted on his Instagram page and the music video actually shows him in jail garb, this orange jumpsuit. And the clip opens with the lyrics, one suspect, two victims,

Starting point is 00:07:23 hurt all three the kids, four or five shots, all it took to get them 40 years. Now, I don't know really what that means. I don't know if it has any relation to what actually happened, but something was going on behind the scenes between when this shooting happened to now, walk us through what you think might have been happening. Well, upon the initial crime that occurred, we're going to obviously have, you know, patrol officers would have responded, lock that scene down, and then detectives would come out and begin the investigation. Once the investigation probably revealed that this gentleman has deep affiliations to street gangs, criminal street gangs, more than likely that investigation switched over to a gang investigation

Starting point is 00:07:59 with a potential gang enhancement, or at least to have gang investigators, those subject matter experts provide context to whatever detective unit decided to work that case. And so once the case is investigated, once the investigator checks all the boxes, goes through all the investigative steps and process that they have to go through to build a case against this suspect, and once probable cause probably was established fairly quickly, probable cause sometimes it's a great standard to have. Obviously, you have to have that to make an arrest, but we want maybe a little bit more to take to a prosecutor that we can show proof beyond that reasonable doubt. so that violent action is, that person is held accountable for that violent criminal act. And so I think probably in the month that has transposed about those, this month, you've had the investigation where it has been run to ground, all the stones have been unturned, all the questions have been answered, all the briefs have been sent up to the executive staff

Starting point is 00:08:54 of law enforcement across Las Vegas here in the Southern Nevada area. And once that warrant is active, once the judge approves it, it is going to be then handed over to that task force, that fugitive. Task Force. And those are the men and women solely responsible for going out and getting the violent people in custody. Because the detectives continue to work on other cases that are happening between now and between the time that crime occurred and now there's been dozens of more incidents here that investigators are going to have to cover. So once the case is kind of run to ground, probable cause exists, a warrant is active in the system approved by a judge, then the fugitive task force or some kind of

Starting point is 00:09:30 criminal apprehension team will go out and look for that suspect. Lots of work, I'm sure, happening across any kind of state lines maybe investigators from Southern California, you know, maybe contacted. There could be all kinds of connections to Southern California because of the gang connection here. And so at a minimum, just for that situational awareness to understand what's happening amongst, you know, Southern California gangs that obviously have an impact here in Southern Nevada, those are all being taken into account as the case is progressing. We know that he was booked into the Clark County Detention Center. Can you tell us what that institution is, what we should be expecting for him during his time there and what should happen in the next few weeks?

Starting point is 00:10:08 Sure. Clark County Detention Center is the main central jail here in southern Nevada. It is overseen and ran by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department where the elected sheriff is in charge of all of it. He will obviously make appearance before a judge. They'll have a 72-hour probable cause hearing. He'll have a potential opportunity to make bail unless a judge decides that the bail is either going to be so higher, there won't be any bail afforded based on the violence of the actions accused in the criminal complaint. Ashton Pack, thank you so much for taking the time to break this down for us, because obviously all we have really the videos and the reporting, but to kind of get this insider

Starting point is 00:10:44 perspective of how this went down and maybe what was happening behind the scenes, it's really going to be important for us all to understand this. And maybe as this case progresses, we would love to have you back on to talk a little bit more about it. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for having me. Thanks so much, everybody, for joining us here on Sidebar. subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - BONUS EPISODE: Rapper Blueface Accused of Shooting Man Over Joke About 'Cheap Vehicle'

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