Philly rapper Lil Bape charged with killing 16-year-old, police say

A 20-year-old rapper has been charged with fatally shooting a 16-year-old in North Philadelphia last month, and police are searching for another man they say also played a role in the killing.

Aysir Clark, known as Lil Bape, surrendered to authorities on Tuesday and has been charged with murder, illegal gun possession, and related crimes for his role in the death of Nafis Betrand-Hill in North Philadelphia last month, police said.

A warrant has also been issued for 18-year-old Ranief Allen, a friend of Clark’s who police say also shot the teen.

According to court records, on April 12, Clark and Allen drove to the 2300 block of West Montgomery Street in a KIA that had been reportedly stolen from Drexel Hill one week earlier.

It was just before 9 p.m., and Betrand-Hill was walking down the sidewalk when the two men started shooting at him from the car, court records say. Surveillance video recovered from the scene showed that the men jumped out of the car and chased the teen, firing more than 30 times, the records say.

Officers found Betrand-Hill badly wounded and took him to Temple University Hospital, where he died a short time later.

Philadelphia police who responded quickly to the scene of the shooting saw a KIA fleeing the area with no lights on, driving in the wrong direction down Norris Street, according to the records. Officers pursued the car but lost it in a brief chase. They found it a short time later abandoned on the 2300 block of Glenwood Avenue, and inside, there was a Glock 27 handgun, the records say.

Surveillance footage from the Raymond Rosen public housing complex, where the car was found, showed the two young men wearing “identical clothing to the shooting suspects” getting out of the car, the records say. They then took off their sweatshirts, which police found discarded inside the courtyard.

Police also recovered fingerprints on the car that matched those of Clark and Allen, the records say, and the locations of their phones line up with the path of the getaway car.

Clark’s lawyer, Robert Gamburg, said Clark “maintains his innocence, and we look forward to our day in court.”

Clark is a fairly well-known local rapper from North Philadelphia, and has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram. His page says he is represented by “Mir Gunna Management” and Solid Unity Records. Neither could be immediately reached for comment.

Court records say Clark and Allen were friends and had posted music videos together.

Clark was being held without bail at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, and has a preliminary hearing scheduled for later this month.