Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Hundreds of Fans Gather to Mourn Rapper Chinx Killed in Drive-By Shooting

 Chinx was shot and killed May 17 in Briarwood. 
Funeral for Chinx in Jamaica
View Full Caption

QUEENS — Hundreds of fans joined the family of rapper Chinx Tuesday to say goodbye to the Queens musician murdered in a drive-by shooting earlier this month.

Mourners gathered in front of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York as early as 7 a.m. for the wake and funeral for Lionel "Chinx" Pickens, 31. He was killed on May 17.

Numerous police officers were present at the funeral, joined by members of several groups working on mitigating gun violence in Queens, including the King of Kings Foundation and the South Jamaica Cure Violence Program.

Pictures showing Pickens during concerts and with his family flashed on cathedral screens as hundreds of fans, many of them wearing T-shirts dedicated to the performer, passed by his brown casket with a silk-draped white interior and white roses on top. 

His wife, Janelli Caceres-Pickens, also wore a white T-shirt reading “SIP Baby Chinx."

Family members portrayed Pickens, a father of three, as an ambitious and warm-hearted family man, as well as a "jokester" with a passion for music who wanted a better life for his kids. 

“Lionel had a gift for making people laugh and smile with his sense of humor,” the family wrote in his obituary, which was read during the ceremony.

“At 15 years old, he knew music was a love that he wanted to pursue,” the obiturary read.

Pickens's cousin, Norman Seabrook, who is also the president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, spoke out against gun violence at the funeral. 

“We must do better than this,” he said. "People have to learn to respect each other. If one person takes the life of another, they both end up dead because that other person goes to jail for the rest of their life." 

"Gun violence needs to cease," said Todd Feurtado of the King of Kings Foundation. "No one shold have to die doing something that they love."

One fan, Laury Ann Joseph, 31, who said she was the first to arrive in front of the cathedral Tuesday morning, said she grew up with Pickens in Far Rockaway.

“I wanted to support the family; we are here for them,” she said. 

"It was senseless," another fan, Michael Young, 18, said about the shooting that led to Pickens's death.

The rapper, a member of French Montana's Coke Boys, was shot and killed after he stopped his silver Porsche at a red light on Queens Boulevard and 84th Drive in Briarwood at about 4 a.m. after performing in Brooklyn earlier that night, police said.

He was shot multiple times from another car that pulled up alongside his vehicle, according to police. 

No arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning and a motive for the crime remains unclear, authorities said.