T.I. arrested on weapons charges
Sunday, October 14, 2007
, Posted by DJ Plan.B at 10/14/2007 06:27:00 AM
According to various published reports from repuatble sources, recording artist T.I. aka Clifford Harris Jr., was arrested on weapons charges early this afternoon just before he was to recieve the awards for best Hip Hop Artist and perform at the BET Hip Hop Awards taped this evening in Altanta, Georgia.
Feds say he had three unregistered machine guns, two silencers, which are all felonies. Harris was charged with possession of three unregistered machine guns and two silencers, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
"Following the arrest, agents searched Harris massive brick home at 429 Creekview Lane in College Park, where they found three rifles, two pistols and a revolver in a walk-in closet. Three of the guns found during the search were purchased by the cooperating witness and delivered to Harris, according to authorities.
About 7 p.m. Saturday, a handful of ATF agents, most of them wearing medical gloves, carried about 10 boxes out of the rapper's open garage and loaded them into an unmarked police car at the bottom of the sloping driveway. They also carried papers and folders and put the contents in a brown paper bag before placing them in a tan sedan.
At 8:30 p.m., a woman in a GMC Yukon pulled up and identified herself as T.I.'s mother. She told an ATF agent she had T.I.'s attorney on the phone, and asked the agent for the inventory list of the items seized in the search. The woman waved off an AJC reporter who approached her car.
Throughout the day, while celebrities speculated about T.I.'s whereabouts from the red carpet at the BET awards, a row of unmarked police cars and TV news trucks clogged the end of the cul-de-sac where T.I. lives.
Neighbors described Harris as a good guy who is not home often, but who rolls down his window and chats with them as he drives by. He has a guard who watches his gated property and occasionally has a lot of visitors.
"He travels quite a bit," neighbor Michael McCrimmon said. "Living next door to him, I have a better chance of seeing him on TV than I do here."
'Out of nowhere'
Hassan Musaddiq, a cameraman for the Atlanta public access hip-hop show "Severe Entertainment," said he was in the Walgreens parking lot and witnessed the arrest. He was there to pick up a video camera for red carpet interviews.
"I saw the ATF come out of nowhere," Musaddiq said. "They had them all on the ground. At first, I didn't even realize it was T.I. It was crazy. There was an unmarked black van and then about 10 squad cars came in."
The cameraman said he didn't have his equipment at the time of the arrest. He said he had seen the rappers together earlier in the day up the street at the Atlanta Civic Center, where rehearsals were under way for the BET awards show.
Musaddiq said he was there to get his media credentials for the red carpet. He said he watched while officers towed off a black Range Rover and a tan Suburban from the Walgreens parking lot as well.
'I didn't see T.I. with any weapons but the ATF officers had guns out," Musaddiq said. "It was total drama.'"
About 7 p.m. Saturday, a handful of ATF agents, most of them wearing medical gloves, carried about 10 boxes out of the rapper's open garage and loaded them into an unmarked police car at the bottom of the sloping driveway. They also carried papers and folders and put the contents in a brown paper bag before placing them in a tan sedan.
At 8:30 p.m., a woman in a GMC Yukon pulled up and identified herself as T.I.'s mother. She told an ATF agent she had T.I.'s attorney on the phone, and asked the agent for the inventory list of the items seized in the search. The woman waved off an AJC reporter who approached her car.
Throughout the day, while celebrities speculated about T.I.'s whereabouts from the red carpet at the BET awards, a row of unmarked police cars and TV news trucks clogged the end of the cul-de-sac where T.I. lives.
Neighbors described Harris as a good guy who is not home often, but who rolls down his window and chats with them as he drives by. He has a guard who watches his gated property and occasionally has a lot of visitors.
"He travels quite a bit," neighbor Michael McCrimmon said. "Living next door to him, I have a better chance of seeing him on TV than I do here."
'Out of nowhere'
Hassan Musaddiq, a cameraman for the Atlanta public access hip-hop show "Severe Entertainment," said he was in the Walgreens parking lot and witnessed the arrest. He was there to pick up a video camera for red carpet interviews.
"I saw the ATF come out of nowhere," Musaddiq said. "They had them all on the ground. At first, I didn't even realize it was T.I. It was crazy. There was an unmarked black van and then about 10 squad cars came in."
The cameraman said he didn't have his equipment at the time of the arrest. He said he had seen the rappers together earlier in the day up the street at the Atlanta Civic Center, where rehearsals were under way for the BET awards show.
Musaddiq said he was there to get his media credentials for the red carpet. He said he watched while officers towed off a black Range Rover and a tan Suburban from the Walgreens parking lot as well.
'I didn't see T.I. with any weapons but the ATF officers had guns out," Musaddiq said. "It was total drama.'"
