The attorney for rapper Lil Tjay claims that his arrest on Monday was wrong and that cops did not have a valid legal reason to search the car he was in.
Lil Tjay was arrested on Monday afternoon in the Bronx. News reports suggested that the rapper had a loaded firearm which was found inside the Cadillac Escalade he was driving in. News reports quoting police sources say that the rapper, whose real is Tione Jayden Merritt was with four friends when the car they were in got pulled over for heavily tinted windows and a missing front license plate.
Videos showed the rapper being handcuffed and taken away by police while the NYPD says he was arrested after four guns were found in the vehicle by police during the traffic stop at 183rd Street and Ryer Avenue. However, Lil Tjay’s lawyer Dawn Florio calls out the NYPD for what she says is not an accurate version of what happened. The attorney was quoted by TMZ as saying that the police had no reasonable cause to search the car that the rapper was in.
Florio said that not only was the rapper a passenger inside the vehicle along with others but that there was no traffic violation that gave cops probable cause to search the car because the vehicle was parked legally on the street. Additionally, she said that the police failed to execute a search warrant for the vehicle, and she is also disputing reports that four guns were found. According to her, the one gun found does not belong to Tjay.
Lil Tjay remains behind bars, but his attorney says that the police have no legal basis for his continued detention as they had no probable cause to search the car or detain him pertaining to the gun found.
She also said she believes that cops profiled the rapper after watching his social media posts about him and Ice Spice’s plans to film the music video for their song “Gangsta Boo” on Monday afternoon.
In the meantime, the rapper is awaiting arraignment when he will know if he will receive bond. Tjay and Ice Spice first linked up around thanksgiving when they donated free turkeys to people in the Bronx.
The rapper’s song with the Ice Spice comes months after he revealed his comeback to music after being shot seven times during an attempted robbery in New Jersey.
