Before King Von got killed back in 2020,
him and Lil Durk were facing a wild attempted murder case
that almost put them away forever -
and today we’re breaking down the entire story.
King Von and Lil Durk came up in Chicago
and was homies for years,
but Von waited a long time before he followed Durk into the rap game.
He spent his whole life in the streets
and only decided to focus on music after beating a murder case in 2017.
When Durk saw that Von was ready to switch it up and go hard in the booth,
he signed him to his Only the Family
label and Von took off from the jump!
His tracks Beat Dat Body and WAR With Us both ran up numbers,
but the song Crazy Story is what really put him on the map.
The track blew up
and has almost 200 million streams on Spotify alone,
and it made everyone in the industry start tapping in with Von.
He followed it up with Crazy Story 2.0 with Lil Durk
in May 2019 and was popping off even more.
Durk was already one of the hottest rappers in the game
but it took him a long time to reach the top.
Von definitely got a boost just from being affiliated with him,
but it was still shocking how fast he was blowing up.
Fans knew they could take over the game together,
but they almost lost everything right at the start.
A month after Crazy Story 2.0 dropped,
news broke that Von and Durk were wrapped up
in an attempted murder case where they shot and robbed a dude in Atlanta.
According to reports,
Durk and Von were outside a cigar lounge
in February 2019 around 5 in the morning
when they got into an argument with a dude named Alexander Witherspoon.
It’s still not clear exactly what went down,
but at some point shots started going off
and Witherspoon caught a bullet in the leg.
A witness said
When I heard gunshots
it’s a whole other sound,
so
I didn’t hear voices,
I heard bullets
I just seen bodies fall.
The police say 18 shots were fired,
and a detective claimed
You see Mr. Banks arm
out the window firing several shots
at the victim, towards the victim.
Durk and Von allegedly knew Witherspoon
and pressed him for a chain
and $30K in cash that he had in his pockets,
He said his chain was snatched
off his neck
and he had $30,000 stolen from him
and they stole the vehicle he was driving.
‌ but they both denied the charges immediately.
Durk was on tour when the news broke.
But instead of pulling a TayK and doing the race,
he flew right to Atlanta and turned himself in.
He had an interview with Channel 2 Action News
before the cops arrested him,
and Durk said
Once I heard,
I immediately came back
because I have nothing to hide,
I have nothing to run from.
He also dropped a track on the same day
called Turn Myself In and aired out the situation.
He said
“Look up at the judge, can’t look,
state makin’ up lies for sure
I’m an innocent man for sure,
it is what it is for sure
Nobody gon’ ride,
had a warrant so I can’t hide
India gon’ stay by my side,
I did a song with Chance tonight
He give me positive vibes,
to better my image for life
I turn myself in tonight,
head down with these ‘cuffs on just read me my rights.”
Besides the attempted murder charge,
Von and Durk were also facing aggravated assault,
participation in criminal street gang activity,
possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony,
and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
If they got convicted
there was a good chance of them getting a heavy sentence.
All of the charges were serious,
and what made the situation worse
was that they both already had prior cases.
Back in 2011
Durk got booked on a weapons charge
and served a few months in jail.
Then in 2013 he got arrested again
when he allegedly tossed a gun into his whip
when a cop came up to him.
That charge ended up getting dropped
after his lawyer found nine witnesses to sign affidavits,
and one of them even admitted that the strap was actually his and not Durks.
Von’s list of charges was way crazier than Durk’s though.
He caught a gun charge in 2012,
then in 2014 he was booked for first degree murder
over the death of a college student named Malcom Stuckey.
Von and his homie Big Mike allegedly rolled up on some opps
at a party that Stuckey was at
and got into a shootout.
The opps started shootin first,
but Von and Mike shot back and hit them.
Everyone who was shooting survived,
but Stuckey got caught in the middle and tragically died.
Big Mike flipped and agreed to testify,
which would have put Von away for life.
But right before the trial
Mike decided to stay quiet
and ended up with a 28 year sentence while Von was set free.
Durk and Von only spent a few weeks in jail
on the attempted murder case before they bonded out for $250K and $300K.
They both got right back in the booth,
and later that year
Von dropped his debut mixtape with a couple features from Durk.
While they still had the case hanging over their heads,
both of them were blowing up more than ever.
The year after they got booked,
Durk popped off with tracks like 3 Headed Goat
and Laugh Now Cry Later with Drake -
while Von was taking over with his debut mixtape and album.
With all of the momentum behind them in the industry,
most fans forgot about the attempted murder charge they were facing.
Durk and Von were on top of the game
and getting bigger with every track they dropped.
But right when it seemed like Von was finally about to focus on rap full time,
he started a fight with NBA Youngboy’s homie Quando Rondo
and ended up gettin killed in Atlanta.
After Von died,
Durk kept grinding and dedicated his album The Voice to him.
He kept it up over the next couple of years
working with superstars like Kanye West,
Drake, and Lil Baby -
but at the same time he was still facing years in prison.
Attempted murder isn’t as likely to get you a life sentence like a murder charge would,
but in this case
Durk could have been locked away for life.
After the shooting went down,
the cops claimed it was a gang related crime.
So Durk was facing an extra twenty years
on top of the attempted murder charges.
Back in 2021,
Durk tweeted out
“Police be on these fake accounts then booooooom
you locked up.”
Fans were worried that Durk was about to get booked again
or had some bad news about the attempted murder situation,
but nothing ever happened
so it’s not clear what he was really talking about.
Durk and his fans spent years
not knowing how the situation was going to turn out,
but in October 2022
they finally got some good news.
The Fulton County DA’s office announced
that they were dropping the case against him and said
“The facts of this case have been reviewed and,
although it appears that probable cause existed for the defendant’s arrest,
the decision of the District Attorney at this time is not to prosecute.”
Nobody knows exactly how much evidence they really had against him,
but apparently it wasn’t strong enough for them to take it to trial.
But even though Durk is free and safe from the charges,
if Von was still alive
he'd probably be in jail right now.
The DA said Von would still be investigated for the shooting if he didn’t die,
and he was also being investigated for at least three murders back in Chicago.
Von caught a gun charge in 2012,
but now the cops think he killed a dude
from STL/EBT named Modell that same year.
His homie T.Roy was the main suspect for a long time,
but a leaked report says that now the police think Von was the shooter.
He was allegedly involved with a bunch of other shootings,
and some think Von had killed up to 10 people before he died.
FBG Duck was murdered just a couple months before Von died,
and in January a report came out where an FBI witness claimed
Von put a $100K hit on his head.
Five dudes from O’Block ended up getting arrested
for killing Duck in broad daylight,
and according to the witness
Von is the one who sent them there.
When Duck died,
Von hopped on Twitter
and claimed that they had squashed the beef right before he was killed -
but Duck’s own mom says it was all cap.
She also said that Von and T.Roy
allegedly took out another dude named Boss Trell,
Von allegedly killed Trell
him and T. Roy,
Only the streets know
and only the people who did it know
so that’s why I’m saying allegedly.
But it’s not clear if he was ever actually investigated for it.
Duck was one of O’Block’s biggest opps
and it looks like Von was just trolling with the tweet -
and Lil Durk basically confirmed the beef wasn’t over
when he dropped the track Should’ve Ducked and said
“You come outside without your gun,
lil boy, you dumb as f***
Ain’t no quick run to the store,
they pop out, fire you up
I told my P.O. through the gate
that I get high as f***
She ask me how high do I get?
I told her high as Duck.”
There's a lot of unconfirmed rumors
that Lil Durk was involved with taking out Duck too.
Right now it’s too early to say how the RICO against O’Block will go,
but if Durk was involved at all
there’s a good chance he’ll get hit with charges over it.
You never know who will stay quiet
and who will work with the cops to get a deal,
and anything can happen in a case like this
when you have five dudes facing murder charges.
Some people think Durk actually snitched on Von
after he died to get out of his attempted murder charge.
There’s no proof to back it up,
but it's rumored he told them Von was the shooter after he died
so he wouldn’t go down for it.
Even though Durk is clear of the 2019 case now,
he could still face some time
if they tie him to Duck's murder.
There's a lot of rappers being targeted by the police in RICO cases,
and they’ve been after O’Block for a minute.
If the cops had anything real solid against Durk
he’d probably already be in jail,
but they could just be stacking up evidence and waiting for the right moment.
Young Thug and his YSL crew
were under investigation for years
before they were actually indicted,
so you never know when they might be coming.