‘Painting Pictures’ rapper Superstar Pride charged with first-degree murder
“Painting Pictures” rapper Superstar Pride has been charged with first-degree murder after a Mississippi shooting.
The Panola County Sheriff’s Office said the deputies responded to a residence on Highway 35 around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and found 40-year-old Marcus Wheatley dead from apparent gunshot wounds.
Investigators found evidence at the scene and quickly honed in on Cadarrius Pride, 20, also known as Superstar Pride, as the suspect.
A search for Pride kicked off until chief deputy Reginald Lantern was contacted by a family member who said the rapper wanted to turn himself in.
“At 4:47 p.m., Pride surrendered to chief Lantern and was transported to the Panola County Detention Center,” the sheriff’s office said. He was later charged with first-degree murder.
Pride currently does not have bond set, according to a news release.
Police did not release details of what led up to the shooting or what the relationship is between the suspect and the victim.
However, Wheatley’s grandmother Mary Ann Strong told WREG that he was Pride’s barber. She said that she saw Pride come into the home and chase Wheatley out before shooting him in a nearby field.
“He fell here and he shot about three times after he fell and he walked over to me and he pointed the gun at me and asked if I was going to tell it,” Strong told the station, before Pride shot Wheatley one more time.
She said he fled the scene in a red pickup truck which was later found abandoned in Pope, Miss.
Pride, from Batesville, Miss., made the Billboard Top 100 this year with “Painting Pictures.” His independent EP “5lbs. of Pressure” was streamed millions of times after he went viral on TikTok.
