Holly MatkinChicago, IL – An aspiring rapper has been arrested for threatening to murder a uniformed Chicago police officer in a viral Facebook Live video (video below).
Tavon Baylock, 20, streamed the live video on the social media platform on Jan. 23, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“We’re gonna kill him,” Baylock laughs in the video, as he and two other vehicle occupants pulled up alongside a marked Chicago Police Department (CPD) patrol vehicle.
“You better mind your mother–kin’ business, b—h,” he said in the video. “I’m gonna kill you.”
He panned the camera between the two semiautomatic handguns in his lap and the unsuspecting officer driving the police SUV.
Another individual armed with a handgun equipped with a 50-round magazine and a laser sight sat in the backseat of the suspect’s car, Cook County prosecutors said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“My gun’s on my lap. He’s gonna get his a– hurt!” Baylock said in the video.
The patrol vehicle momentarily fell behind them at a traffic light, at which point Baylock raised the camera above him to show the officer pulling up next to them yet again.
“Keep comin.’ I got some s–t that hurts,” he said.
The marked patrol vehicle then proceeded past them, and drove off ahead.
“He runnin’! Chase that n—-r, he runnin’!” Baylock declared. “Kill him! Catch him!”
“Hey look! We got guns and s–t,” he said later in the video, pointing the weapons at the camera. “Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!”
The suspect vehicle trailed after the marked police unit for several more blocks before the video ended.
“F–k the police,” Baylock said. “Imma shoot this b—h in public. F–k… Y’all seen the police runnin’ from us. Y’all know who really runnin’ Chicago.”
According to prosecutors, much of the video was recorded in the 9500-block of South Halsted Street, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The officer seen in the video identified himself after he was shown the footage, and Baylock was ultimately arrested on a felony count of threatening a public official.
But Baylock’s attorney, Michael Saken, denied that his client ever threatened the uniformed officer.
“Besides the fact that there is language used that most would consider to be bad, there were no threats,” Saken argued in court.
The defense attorney also noted that police had not recovered any weapons in connection with the incident.
Judge David Navarro denied Saken’s request to release Baylock on his own recognizance, and set his bail at $10,000.
According to prosecutors, the aspiring rapper was charged with unlawful use of a weapon on two occasions in 2015. He was a juvenile at the time.
You can watch cell phone footage of the incident in the video below: