Rapper Julio Foolio shot dead on his 26th birthday

Popular Florida rapper Julio Foolio was reportedly shot during his 26th birthday party in Tampa, with his attorney calling the incident an “ambush.”

According to Florida station WFLA, three other people were shot in the luxury car Foolio was driving in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn hotel in Tampa around 4:45 a.m.

Foolio, who was born and raised as Charles Jones in Jacksonville, Florida, was best known for his song “Voo Doo.” He had been posting videos and updates about his birthday celebration to his one million Instagram followers all night when the tragedy struck.

The party, which had originally taken place at the Airbnb, was overcrowded with partygoers and local police broke it up and asked attendees to disperse.

Foolio shared another poignant IG update on his party, saying, “Best birthday ever. I’m grateful to everyone who came. We pumped it up until we couldn’t anymore. We’re on our way to the show now, come on everyone.”

For this reason, Foolio and his crew headed to the Holiday Inn to find a place where they could end the party and end the evening.

The rapper’s alleged girlfriend, Mani B, confirmed Foolio’s untimely death on social media.

“You took my friend away from me. I hate you all and I won’t be the only one crying,” she said tweeted with a small broken heart emoji.

Foolio’s lawyer Lewis Fusco also spoke about the tragedy on his Instagram Stories.

“The Fusco Law Group was honored to represent Charles Jones, known professionally as Foolio, for several years,” Fusco wrote. “It is with deep sadness that we confirm that Mr Jones passed away early this morning.”

The attorney continued, saying, “Although these events surrounding our client, Mr. Charles Jones, have been disclosed by law enforcement, we are unable to comment further at this time until more details become publicly available. We respectfully ask that you respect the privacy of Mr. Jones and his family during this difficult time.”

In a chilling tweet just days before his death, Foolio said the following to X.

According to Jacksonville news channel News4Jax, Foolio rose through the local and regional rap ranks through his popular drill rap videos with caustic lyrics about murders by rival gangs in Jacksonville.

Newspaper sales News from First Coast reports that Foolio was shot in 2020, 2021 and 2023.

And before that, Foolio’s younger brother Adrian Dennard was reportedly shot and killed in 2019.