Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Miami Rapper Baby Cino Killed In Shooting Minutes After His Release From Jail On Bond
Timothy Starks, who goes by the name Baby Cino, had bonded out of jail after being arrested on a weapons charge, but was attacked by an unknown assailant on his way home.
A young rapper in Miami was fatally shot just after his release from jail on Wednesday.
Timothy "Baby Cino" Starks, 20, died on Wednesday afternoon after a car in which he was traveling on Miami's Palmetto Expressway was shot at more than 40 times, the Miami Herald reported.
Starks had bonded out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami at 2:10 p.m., police told the Herald, and his friend Dante’ Collins Banks, 20, picked him up. Banks was driving his mother's red Nissan Altima, she told Miami ABC affiliate WPLG. He called his mother from the car as the two were driving northbound on the Palmetto Expressway, she told the station, and complained "that a gray Jeep Grand Cherokee was following them and tried to cut them off."
Police say that, just four miles from the jail, someone began firing on the car while both vehicles were in traffic around 2:45 p.m., Miami Fox affiliate WSVN reported.
Starks was hit multiple times, and Banks was shot in the abdomen, the Herald reported. The Nissan crashed into the wall of the expressway just north of Okechobee Road; police say a "dark-colored vehicle" was seen speeding from the area.
Banks was airlifted to the hospital, where he remained on Friday, WPLG reported.
The northbound lanes of the Palmetto Expressway were closed until 11 p.m. for the police investigation, according to the Herald, as police walked southbound along the stretch of road to collect bullet casings and determine where the shooting started, WPLG reported.
Starks had been arrested earlier Wednesday after police say they found him with a unlicensed handgun concealed in his vehicle, the Herald and WPLG reported. A law enforcement source told the Herald that they believed Starks was associated with a gang known as "Boss Life" that operates in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.
As Baby Cino — whose Instagram account referred to him as "The Neighborhood Hope Dealer" — Starks had released several songs and been featured on local rapper Twig Andretti's February album "The Book of Haiti." In January, Cino released a video for his own song, "Big Haiti Shottas" dedicated to Garry “Melo” Laguerre, an 18-year-old man killed outside a supermarket by a drive-by shooter in June 2020, the Herald and WPLG reported at the time.
Police say they have no suspects in the Starks shooting, but are asking for witnesses to come forward.
“If you observed the shooting taking place or if you recall any bit of detail, no matter how minor it is, please call our Crime Stoppers tip line with your information,” Miami-Dade Police detective Angel Rodriguez told WSVN.
