US rapper Bobby Shmurda faces gun, drug charges
FILE — In this Oct. 30, 2014 file photo, Bobby Shmurda arrives at Power 105.1’s Powerhouse 2014 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Shmurda whose real name is Ackquille Pollard has been arrested in New York City in a gun and narcotics investigation. AP PHOTO
NEW YORK — An up-and-coming rapper who performs under the name of Bobby Shmurda will face gun and drug trafficking charges when an arraignment is unsealed in court.
Ackquille Pollard was taken into custody shortly after he left a recording studio near Radio City Music Hall in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday. His indictment will be made public on Thursday.
The arrest stems from an investigation into a series of gang-related shootings and drug trafficking in the city.
Pollard, 20, is named with other defendants in the indictment, said Kati Cornell, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor. She declined to detail the charges.
Chad Marshal, another aspiring hip-hop artist known as Rowdy Rebel, was arrested inside the recording studio where police also recovered handguns, authorities said.
The Brooklyn-born Pollard is best known for the hit song “Hot Boy” and for a music video that popularized a dance move called the “Shmoney dance.”
A “Hot Boy” video posted on YouTube in August has been viewed tens of millions of times, and Pollard performed the song for a national television audience this month on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
“My music is straight facts,” Pollard recently told New York Magazine. “There are a lot of gangsters in my ‘hood.'”
Pollard’s criminal history included two arrests for gun and drug possession, authorities said.
The names of attorneys for Pollard and Marshal weren’t immediately available.
