Lil Tjay, who was nearly killed at a New Jersey restaurant last summer, was arrested on gun charges this week. According to Daily Voice, an arrest warrant was issued for the 22-year-old rapper on April 14 in connection to the shooting. Lil Tjay was taken into custody by prosecutor’s detectives Friday (May 5) and charged with three counts of illegal weapons possession. He was subsequently booked at Bergen County Jail but released just hours later.
Lil Tjay had just returned from a world tour that had taken him to cities such as London, Paris and Berlin when he turned himself in. He posted several photos from his trip, including a handful from Paris. He tweeted, “If you escaped what I escaped, you’d be in Paris getting f##** up too!!”
If you escaped what I escaped,
— TJAYYYY 🖤 (@liltjay) April 16, 2023
you’d be in Paris getting f##** up too!!
🤷🏾♂️🍻 pic.twitter.com/qIFM6FKPDg
Lil Tjay underwent emergency surgery after he was shot outside the Chipotle restaurant in the Shops at City Place on River Road in Edgewater in June 2022. He was airlifted to Hackensack University Medical Center with seven gunshot wounds. Police say he had three handguns hidden in his car at the time of what was believed to be a botched robbery.
A friend of Lil Tjay’s, Antoine Boyd, also took a bullet in the back. He drove to an Exxon station about a mile up River Road before he was discovered by police. He and another Bronx member of the entourage, Jeffrey Valdez, were both charged with illegal gun possession.
The accused shooter, Mohamed Konate, was arrested in NYC the same night. He was ultimately extradited to New Jersey and has remained at Bergen County Jail. He’s been charged with multiple counts of attempted murder as well as armed robbery and weapons offenses.
Lil Tjay has a history of carrying weapons. In 2021, he and Boyd were arrested after New York City police said they found them and three other men with four loaded pistols in a Cadillac SUV.