The Los Angeles-based rapper who was murdered for his chain in a NYC pharmacy pleaded with the killer to spare his life.
Aspiring drill rapper Moneygang Vontae, who moved from Chicago to L.A., was in the Bronx, NY to scout locations for a music video on Thursday, June 9.
The 27-year-old was gunned down during an armed robbery at the Amazing Community Pharmacy on E. Tremont Avenue around 2 p.m., police say.
A pharmacy employee who witnessed part of the armed robbery said Vontae, real name Avanti Frowner, pleaded with his killer.
The worker, who is seen on surveillance video watching part of the altercation, said she heard Vontae begging for his life. “He said, ‘Please, please, we can talk, we can talk,” she told NBC New York.
She told NBC New York that the rapper made a purchase earlier that afternoon while at the pharmacy with a friend.
When he returned 20 minutes later, he was approached by two weed dealers who wanted to sell him weed, but he declined.
Four men then followed Vontae inside the pharmacy and a fight ensued before one assailant shot him four times.
“He look like trouble,” the pharmacy employee told NBC, referring to Vontae. “I saw that he had a lot of money. They looked like they [were] fighting or arguing, I don’t know. I saw that one of them had a gun. I went back there to the pharmacist screaming, ‘We have to move, have to move, because he have a gun, he have a gun!'”
Before he was killed, Vontae was robbed of his custom chain, designer sneakers, a designer bag, cash, a pricey wristwatch and other valuables. One man tried to remove his skinny jeans, but couldn’t get the $325 pants past his ankles.
The NYPD released high-resolution surveillance images of 5 suspects seen loitering outside the pharmacy before and after the murder.
The suspects are still at large.
“They don’t need to be on the streets no more – ever!” Vontae’s dad, Roger Frowner, 56, told The NY Post. “If they kill somebody in broad daylight, inside of a store, they are treacherous.”
“They made a mistake,” Frowner continued. “They did the dumbest thing they could ever do in life. And I hope God will make them pay for it all.”
“My son is gone,” Roger Frowner said. “He’s in another state, and I can’t do nothing. So you know, a big-ass hole is in my heart.”
Frowner said his son liked “everything that money could buy,” and added that he “worked hard” for the jewelry he wore.
“That’s all he did with his money, [buy] clothes, cars and jewelry,” he told the Post.
“All I wanna say is I’ll be glad when this is all over, because the memory will always be there,” Frowner added. “You know I want justice for my son. I’m just hurt right now.”
Vontae’s grieving mother, Andrea Banks, posted about her son’s death on Facebook on Thursday.
“They killed my Son MoneyGang Avanti Frowner Wolfpack I’m so heartbroken,” she wrote, referring to the name he used on Facebook.
Vontae’s final Instagram post was a photo that showed him outside a Bronx bodega. He wore an all black outfit and his signature diamond chip nameplate on a gold chain. He also wore black skinny jeans with the words “Rest in peace” and “Rest in power” on each knee.
He captioned the post, “I Got Use To Counting So Much Money I Got Paper Cuts!!”
Watch the video below. CAUTION: Video contains disturbing imagery.
#MoneyGangVontae pic.twitter.com/m4LYhDtagO
— DTC????????Z? (@DTCFrance) June 14, 2022
