A restaurant with ties to rapper Yo Gotti was the scene of a shooting on Wednesday that left two people dead and five injured in Memphis, Tennessee. According to WREG, the shooting took place after just after closing time at Prive, the soul food restaurant the hometown MC (born Mario Mims), 41, bought for his mother, Geraldine, who is the establishment’s manager and chef.
When police arrived on scene that found two male victims, one of whom was pronounced dead and the other who was taken to a local hospital, where he later died. WREG reported that the five additional shooting victims — four as-yet-unnamed males (ages 37, 35, 31 and 30) and one female (25) — were all transported to hospitals in private vehicles after the shooting that police said was sparked by an altercation inside the restaurant.
At press time it did not appear that Gotti had responded to the shooting on his social feeds and a spokesperson for the rapper had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment; a spokesperson for the Memphis Police Department had also not returned a request for comment, or information about any arrests in the incident, at press time.
The station spoke to the owner’s lawyer, Arthur Horne, who said they were devastated by the shooting. “On behalf of Prive, they’ve been in business for ten years, and nothing like this has ever happened at their establishment.” Horne said, contrary to the police statement, the altercation took place outside the restaurant.
“It happened out in the parking lot, and it ended up in a shootout,” he said. “Nothing happened inside the restaurant. Despite any conflicting reports, they were closing, and this happened at the end of the evening in the parking lot.”
