The murderer of rapper Dolla has admitted that he shot the gun that killed the artist, but said that the act was done in self-defense, according to his lawyer.
Howard R. Price, lawyer for 23-year-old Aubrey Louis Berry, said that he had a previous altercation with Dolla that lead to a fatal confrontation.
Price alleged, through his lawyer, that he was scared for his life when he killed Dolla and shot at two other people.
Price has since been charged with murder and a pair of assault charges related to the Monday shooting. Additionally, his bail has been raised to $5 million. Berry is slated to enter a plea on Friday, a postponement from Wednesday.
Earlier in the month, Dolla (Roderick Anthony Burton II) and Price had an altercation in an Atlanta nightclub. By pure coincidence, the two crossed paths again in Los Angeles at a P.F. Chang's and the conflict quickly resumed. Price said that Dolla was affiliated with the Crips gang and threatened him in the restaurant bathroom.
Full details of the shooting have yet to be released and a motive has not been announced by the police.
Price was arrested with a loaded 9m handgun on him at Los Angeles International Airport.
Dolla is a rapper that was signed to Akon's Konvict Music label and was working on his debut album.
According to Los Angeles attorney Howard Price, his client Aubrey Berry killed Dolla in self-defense despite the rapper being unarmed.
“He believed [Dolla] was armed,” Price told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “He [Berry] believed he was in danger.”
The two men had crossed paths two weeks ago, when Dolla and his entourage allegedly attacked Berry at an Atlanta gentleman’s club named Platinum 21.
Regarding the accusations that Berry followed Dolla to Los Angeles to execute him in revenge, Price argued their chance second encounter in the restaurant stall was simply fate.
Berry, a self-styled music promoter, is said to have been at the eatery conducting a business meeting.
“He [Berry] was there [at P.F. Chang’s] first,” Price explained. “[During the strip club incident], Mr. Berry inadvertently bumped into a woman he didn’t know. It was a stupid, silly incident that should’ve never escalated to this point.”
According to Price, his client decided to flee the restaurant after the bathroom stall encounter, as friends warned him that Dolla had Crip affiliations.
While waiting for his vehicle in the Beverly Center parking lot, he was allegedly approached by Dolla, his friend, Sidiq Abawi, and the rapper's cousin, Wilbert Robinson.
Around this time, Berry discharged four to five shots from his 9MM handgun.
Dolla was hit several times in the back, and died from a wound that pierced his heart.
Police have charged Aubrey Berry with two counts of assault with a deadly firearm and one count of murder.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Dolla's stepfather George Viera explained his stepson’s true personality was league’s a part from the rap persona fans knew.
"It was a character he played. To us he was just Roddy,” Viera revealed in a statement. “When he was home, you couldn't pry him away. [He] loved to play with his nieces and nephews, loved to play on the Wii. He wanted to go to theology school. He was very interested in religion. People think rapper, they think hard, but he wasn't that way."
At press time, Aubrey Berry’s bail has been set at $5 million.
Hundreds gathered at Word of Faith Love Center to pay their final respects to 21-year-old Roderick Anthony Burton Jr., affectionately called “Buck” by his friends and family.
In keeping with the Janazah ceremony used by the Muslim faith to pay homage to the dead, several friends and family were dressed in traditional white attire.
Dolla’s body was wrapped in a cream-colored sheet.
The funeral was held in keeping with Dolla’s wishes. His cousin, rapper Scrapp DeLeon, told Atlanta CBS affiliate WGCL-TV that Dolla once told him that he did not fear death and when it came he wanted people to wear white and celebrate his life.
Scrapp, born Wilbert Robinson, was with his cousin at the time of the shooting that took his life on May 18 at the Beverly Center.
Atlanta-area music promoter Aubrey Berry, 23, has been charged with Dolla’s murder and is currently being held on $5 million bond.
On Friday (May 22), fans, friends and family gathered at Murray Brothers Funeral Home in Atlanta for Dolla’s wake.
Among those present were his Konvict Muzik labelmate Ray Lavender, Smallville actor Sam Jones III, and O’neika El-Amin, who works closely with the Konvict family and had known Dolla since he was 16.
El-Amin told AllHipHop.com she was shocked by how beautiful the young man looked in preparation for his final resting place.
“I even Tweeted about it,” said El-Amin, who shared with her followers at the time that “he looks like a Handsome Prince, wrapped in a white sheet & a beautiful garb on his head.”
Roderick “Dolla” Burton was buried at Westview Cemetery in Atlanta.