Screenshot/Twitter – @HipHopTiesMedia
- Drakeo the Ruler was arrested on Sunday after he documented his Uber being pulled over in a stream.
- In an Instagram Live, police could be heard telling the rapper to exit the vehicle.
- The rapper has faced legal trouble for years and was freed from jail after a plea deal in November.
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A rapper was arrested on Sunday after he documented his Uber being pulled over in an Instagram Live broadcast.
As Complex and other outlets reported, Darrell Caldwell, the Los Angeles-based rapper known as Drakeo the Ruler, shared an Instagram Live video that is no longer available as of Monday afternoon but was reposted across other platforms. A 2-minute 20-second clip from the Instagram Live appears to show Caldwell being forced by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers to exit the vehicle he was riding in, which he later said was an Uber, with his young son.
According to the LAPD, Caldwell was arrested at 12 p.m. on Sunday on a charge of "excon with a gun," with bail set at $35,000. Caldwell, who's had several smash hits on YouTube that have brought in millions of views, appeared to post bail as he shared several Instagram stories to his 509,000 followers on Monday.
During most of the Instagram Live filmed before his arrest, Caldwell, who did not respond to a request for comment, sat in the vehicle while the policemen could be heard speaking to him from outside of the car.
"We're going to ask you one more time to step out, and if you say no, then we're going to do what we have to do," a policeman said to Caldwell at the start of the video.
"Then I'm going to take you out, and then I'm going to take you to jail," the person added.
Caldwell replied, "What the f--- is going on, bro?"
"Just get out of the car and we'll handle this," another officer could be heard saying in response.
At one point, a purported officer could be heard saying, "I'm going to take your kid out of the car, okay." The child never appeared in the video.
Near the end of the clip, Caldwell appeared to exit the vehicle while shaking his head. The Instagram Live ended as a purported LAPD officer appeared to handcuff Caldwell, who repeatedly yelled, "What are y'all doing?"
Numerous people criticized the incident online.
"Who ever heard of someone get [sic] pulled over on a Sunday morning at 11 a.m. with their toddler son, while riding in the back of an Uber, WHOSE ONLY VISIBLE CRIME WAS HAVING TINTED WINDOWS?," tweeted Jeff Weiss, founder of the online music outlet Passion of the Weiss.
Caldwell later said in his Instagram Live that he was riding in an Uber that had tinted windows.
Caldwell has faced legal trouble in the past, including in 2018, when he was indicted in Los Angeles on felony charges related to a 2016 murder, including murder and conspiracy to commit murder, according to The Guardian.
Although he was acquitted of the murder charges in July 2019, according to The Guardian, the jury convicted him of possessing firearms. In September 2019, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office refiled two charges that the jury was hung on: shooting from a motor vehicle and a criminal gang conspiracy charge, The Ringer reported.
According to The Ringer, Caldwell was kept in jail awaiting trial until November 2020, when he was released after accepting a plea bargain that saw the artist plead guilty to shooting from a vehicle "with gang enhancement," The Ringer wrote.
While incarcerated, Caldwell released 2020's "Thank You For Using GTL," an album recorded over the staticky phone line of Los Angeles' Men's Central Jail, according to Pitchfork, which named it the 35th best record of the year.
Uber did not respond to a request for comment.
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