A rapper who showed up in court to support a friend was arrested and charged with murder

Quamere Hall showed up to Philadelphia’s Criminal Justice Center on Friday to support a friend who was scheduled to be sentenced for killing three people.

He left in handcuffs, charged with murder.

Hall, 22, a young rapper known as “Mere Pablo,” was arrested at the courthouse Friday morning and charged with murder, conspiracy, and related crimes in the shooting death of 34-year-old Sharif King in the Parkside section of the city last year.

Hall, who law enforcement officials say is affiliated with the West Philly-based gang YBC, or the Young Bag Chasers, had come to the courthouse in support of Arshad Curry, a fellow YBC member who was set to be sentenced for shooting five people, three fatally, in 2021.

Curry’s hearing was scheduled in the same room as the sentencing of a man who shot a police officer last year, so the hallway of the eighth floor was filled with top police brass.

Hours earlier, homicide detectives had issued a warrant for Hall’s arrest and pushed out a citywide patrol alert with his photo and the words “wanted.”

Two officers with the highway patrol unit, having seen the alert that morning, recognized Hall in the crowd and alerted sheriffs to take him into custody, said Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore.

Vanore said Hall is one of four people responsible for the shooting death of King on the 5200 block of West Jefferson Street on July 8, 2023. Surveillance footage shows that around 2 p.m., as King walked down the block, four men in masks and hoodies jumped out of a black Acura and shot him multiple times before fleeing, Vanore said.

The getaway car, Vanore said, had been stolen in a gunpoint carjacking on the 3100 block of Hunting Park Avenue earlier that day — a crime during which a man pointed a gun to a woman’s head, then asked her if she wanted to die before demanding her keys and cell phone, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Police recovered the car in Mantua five days later with multiple spent shell casings inside, according to the affidavit.

But some of the most critical information came from an anonymous tipster who submitted information telling police that Hall, alongside two other YBC affiliates known as “Baby Yopp” and “Yak Yola,” was responsible for the shooting, the document said.

Detectives started monitoring Hall’s Instagram, and in the weeks after, watched a livestream he recorded in which he and a friend sat in a car and flashed guns to the camera, according to affidavit.

Officers surveyed the 3500 block of Fairmount Avenue in Mantua, where Hall was known to hang out, and found him sitting in a parked car. Under his seat was a 9mm handgun — one of the weapons that ballistic evidence shows was fired at the scene of King’s killing, according to the affidavit. Hall’s DNA was also found on the weapon, the document said.

Hall was arrested and charged with illegal gun possession. He pleaded guilty to the charge in June, and is scheduled to be sentenced this month.

Cell phone tower data placed Hall near the scene of the carjacking, and in the general area of the shooting later that day — though his phone appeared to be powered off at the exact time of the killing.

In addition to murder, Hall has been charged with robbery, aggravated assault, and related crimes for his alleged role in the carjacking.

» READ MORE: Defying the code of silence: How a teen helped solve four murders and convict a West Philly gang

He’s the latest of a growing list of Philly drill rappers and YBC affiliates charged with murder. Curry was sentenced on Friday to 42 ½-to-85 years in prison for killing three young men. And last fall, three other YBC members were convicted of killing two teens in one day.

Abdul Vicks, a rapper known as “YBC Dul” whom prosecutors consider to be the ringleader of the West Philadelphia-based gang, posted a photo with Hall on his Instagram not long after the arrest, lamenting yet another friend locked up.

“I feel lonely,” he wrote. “All my homies.”