Squash calls cap on reports he was shot last weekend in South Florida.
In a video posted on his Instagram account, the dancehall artist did not confirm or deny reports that he was shot and injured in what has been described as a gang war involving Jamaicans in Lauderhill, Florida. Earlier this week, reports surfaced that a street war that stemmed from Jamaica and spilled over to the Lauderhill community in Florida had gotten deadly, and two persons were shot and killed while another was hospitalized.
The incident reportedly took place at the Blueberry Hill Condos located off Northwest 56th Avenue near Oakland Park Blvd on Wednesday night (Oct 19). One of the shooters has been linked to Squash from the Montego Bay-based music group 6ix.
Since then, there have been speculations that Squash was involved in the shooting and was shot and injured. The artist popped up on Instagram on Sunday, where he addressed the rumors but neither confirmed nor denied whether he was involved in the incident.
“Unu know 6ix boss already, my thing a not fi come pon live and try explain, nuh care wha mi hear, the bag a drama all the time, mi always ignore it zimi… mi loved ones dem, my fans dem concerned about 6ix boss, you understand and everybody a check pan mi, dem hear say mi get shot, hear say mi dead, hear all type of things, see it deh mi well and alive mi fans. Yih zimmi. Mi want unu know say mi active, fully active,” the artist said.
Squash went on to bash blogs for reporting that he was involved in the incident. According to the artist, the blogs were making things difficult for him.
At the end of the Live, the artist said he was involved in crime or violence and stressed that he was only making music in Florida.
“Just leave mi alone bredda, make man live bredda, lowe man make man survive bredda and stop mix up man inna none crime and violence business…music man a do over yah so bredda, strictly music man a do over yah so,” he said.
Earlier this year, Squash confirmed that he had migrated to Florida. The artist was previously linked to the murky violence in Montego Bay, with the police naming him as a crucial “violence producer” in Montego Bay. The artist was detained in 2018 during the State of Emergency. He was later released and was not charged.
Squash is from St. James, which has, for the past decade, had the highest murder rate in Jamaica due to lottery scamming and increasing numbers of illegal guns in the parish, according to the JCF. However, in an interview on On Stage in July, the artist denied that he was a ‘violence producer’.
“Me is not a violence producer enuh Winford, a love alone mi preach to the whole a di youth dem, Salt Spring a mi place, mi love every youth, mi love everybody just the same. Mi nuh preach violence, di youths can tell you, mi never tell a youth fi go shoot this or that person,” he said.
