September 06, 2024
Brandon Buckingham/YouTube
Abdul Vicks, the West Philly rapper and gang leader known as YBC Dul, was killed in a shooting in Olney on Aug. 23. A 16-year-old is now facing charges in Vicks' death and two other shootings last month.
Two weeks after West Philly rapper and gang leader YBC Dul was killed in a drive-by shooting in Olney, a 16-year-old has been charged with homicide in his death and other shootings in the city last month, police said Friday.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, which held a news conference Friday afternoon to discuss the case, said it is charging Aiden Waters as an adult and that he faces charges in two other shootings that happened in August, including another homicide.
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Abdul Vicks, the 25-year-old rapper who goes by YBC Dul, was killed Aug. 23 while in a car on the 5500 block of North Fairhill Street, police said. At a stop light, around 3:30 p.m., another car pulled up alongside the vehicle and multiple shots were fired into the driver's side. Vicks was struck in the chest and hand. He died a short time later at Einstein Medical Center.
After the shooting, police found the getaway car burning in a lot on the 6900 block of North 15th Street.
Vicks was a notable figure in the city's drill rap scene, which glorifies gang violence and revenge in its lyrics and in the way the music is discussed on social media. He was considered the leader of the West Philly gang "Young Bag Chasers," whose members have been charged and convicted in numerous shootings over the past several years.
YBC Dul had built a sizable following in Philadelphia and beyond, drawing upwards of 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and tallying more than a million views on some of his YouTube music videos. His penchant for mocking his rivals — including those the YBC gang took credit for killing — earned Vicks the nickname Mr. Disrespectful.
Police said Waters also fatally shot another 16-year-old on Aug. 18 when he fired into a vehicle in Olney with four other teens inside. In the hours before that shooting, he also had opened fire at two people in the Lawncrest neighborhood of Northeast Philly, injuring both, police said.
In the days after Vicks was killed, the district attorney's office said it was able to confirm the location of the shooting from a video shared widely on social media. In the video, a white SUV is seen pulling up to a traffic light behind a SEPTA bus on North Fairhill Street. Another white SUV then pulls next to the car in the opposing lane and shots are fired into the first car before the gunman leaves the scene. The SUV that Vicks was in is seen speeding off moments later.
Authorities said they followed the vehicle back to Waters' house, where they issued a search warrant and recovered the firearm that matches all three shootings in his basement.
One day before the shooting, Vicks was featured in a video that was published by popular YouTuber Brandon Buckingham, a traveling content creator who often takes his small film crew into dangerous areas of the United States. In the video, titled "The Most Hated Rapper in Philadelphia — Life as Mr. Disrespectful," Vicks and his friends took Buckingham on a tour of the neighborhood blocks they claimed to have "tortured" with routine gun violence. Vicks also flaunted guns in the video and bragged about YBC's violent reputation, which Buckingham recapped for his viewers.
The video was one of several Buckingham filmed in Philadelphia this year. It racked up more than a million views in the days after Vicks was killed, sparking backlash against Buckingham. Police said they were investigating whether the timing of the video's release had anything to do with Vicks' shooting.
In a follow-up video last week, Buckingham addressed the response to his interview with Vicks and accusations that it might have played a role in precipitating the rapper's death. Buckingham said he filmed the interview and a music video he made with YBC Dul while visiting Philly in May, not August. He said neither of his videos showed the white SUV Vicks was killed in, but that the car had appeared in other content YBC Dul had posted online before the shooting.
"Anyone trying to act like I set him up or I wanted this to happen is like, sick in the head," Buckingham said.
The YouTuber also denied that he became involved with Vicks to exploit him and profit from online voyeurism by examining the violent life of a Philly gang leader. Buckingham said he had a real friendship with Vicks and had been planning future get togethers with him in Chicago and St. Louis before he was killed. Buckingham also claimed Vicks was excited about the viral video they made together.
"He approved of every part of the video," he said. "I sent it to him multiple times. I took out everything he wanted to take out. There is nothing in that video that Dul did not want in that video. And the last time that I spoke to Dul on the phone, 19 hours before he passed away, he was saying he loved the video."
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has been outspoken about YBC and other Philly gangs in recent years, warning young people to distance themselves from such groups and vowing to catch those involved in gang violence.
