CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- Six men are in Mecklenburg County Jail Saturday after being arrested for a shooting involving rapper Waka Flocka Flame's tour bus.
The suspects include a man who claims to be an innocent bystander struck by gunfire in the shootout.
Members of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Violent Criminal Apprehension Team arrested the men at different locations around the city at around 6 a.m. Saturday.
Andre Sellers, Antoine Washington, Xavier Hoover, David Bellamy, Barry Lawrence and Antonio Stukes are all being charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and two counts of felony shooting into occupied property.
All are under at least $200,000 bond. Some face additional charges.
Police say the men were trying to rob rapper Waka Flocka Flame of his jewelry, while his tour bus got a sound system upgrade at a store on Independence Blvd. on Wednesday.
Members of the rapper's security team fired at the men who shot at the bus.
NewsChannel 36 interviewed Antonio Stukes on Thursday, while he recovered from a gun shot to the shoulder. It burned like -- on a schedule of 1 to 10 -- I'm at an 8 right now, he said of the pain. Stukes and his attorney, Adam Seifer, said Stukes is an up-and-coming rapper who just wanted to meet Waka Flocka Flame and give him a demo CD.
We don't wake up in the morning like we're going to get shot today, said Stukes on Thursday, So it's surprising.
Now he sits in jail, charged with the same thing as the five other suspects.
It's pretty shocking to me. I was not expecting this, said Seifer. I was expecting someone in the entourage to be arrested.
Seifer said the men in Waka Flocka's entourage fired first, hitting Stukes.
My client ended up getting shot and having to go to the hospital, and in the end he ends up getting arrested, said Seifer. I'm absolutely shocked.
The rapper's publicist, Kali Bowyer, disputes Stukes's claims.
Bowyer said police questioned members of the rapper's security team and none of them have been charged.
When shots were fired, they followed the appropriate protocol, said Bowyer. They are licensed to be carriers; that is their job -- to protect.
Bowyer said security cameras from the audio store back up the security team's story.
They stand by the fact that the surveillance shows clearly that they were the ones being attacked, said Bowyer.
She said the rapper is at a show in Los Angeles Saturday, and she doesn't know if he'd been told of the arrests.
