Thug Life Army

Cincinnati Police have made 2 arrests in the shooting of Hip Hop artist T.I., aka Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr.; aka King of the South, best friend and business associate Philant Johnson.

Two Cincinnati natives : Hosea Thomas, 34, of North College Hill, Cinti. and Padron Thomas, 40, of East Price Hill, Cinti. Have been taken into custody and charged with murder and felonious assault.

Philant Johnson, 26 yrs. old and friend of the hip hop notable T.I, was shot and killed and three other people in T.I.’s entourage were wounded during a high speed gun battle along I-75.

The hip hop star was in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 3, 2006, to play a set at Bogarts, a local hip hop night spot. After that performance the hip hop rap artist and his entourage went to another area hip-hop club called ‘Club Ritz’ in one of Cincinnati’s suburbs and that is when the gun battle took place when the hip hop entourage left Club Ritz. Things spilled out onto I-75 where the gun battle took place. The crime scene was over 3 miles long, and it had closed the interstate.

Cincinnati Homicide Detective Tim Gormly says "T.I. and his group were in the VIP area, The suspects wanted to get in the VIP area(at Bogarts) and weren''t allowed to." At one point, Gormly said, one of the brothers was struck in the head with a bottle.

Shortly after the shooting, several witnesses told The Enquirer, a Cincinnati newspaper, that anger also flared when some of those in the rapper's entourage threw money from the stage. That event may have helped fuel the fire, Detective Gormly said.

"It was just a total accumulation of everything that happened that night," he said.

Both Johnson brothers are in custody and face a list of charges.