Rapper Lil Tjay was expected to be released on a $90,000 bond Wednesday following his arrest on illegal weapon charges earlier this week while filming a music video in the Bronx.
The 21-year-old artist, whose real name is Tione Jayden Merritt, was busted Monday after cops pulled over the Cadillac Escalade he was riding in and found several loaded guns, cops said.
Police said they pulled over the SUV at 183rd Street and Ryer Avenue around 4 p.m. because of tinted windows and a missing front license plate, according to police and sources.
The Bronx-born rapper is charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony.
Merritt was being held on Rikers Island Wednesday but was expected to be released sometime during the day after celebrity bail bondsman Ira Judelson posted his bond.
“He didn’t get out because the judge wouldn’t [take time] to sign or look at the bond,” defense lawyer Dawn Florio said said after Merritt’s arraignment in Bronx court shortly after midnight. “It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Police said four guns were confiscated from the vehicle.
“There was a gun that was allegedly found behind the driver’s seat in the back,” Florio claimed. “And a gun found on the licensed security guard. And two guns in a lock box. They started searching the car and they found the guns.
“But the security guard, who is a retired federal officer,” she said. “They didn’t care.”
The “Brothers” artist, who has a contract with Columbia Records, was in the borough to shoot a music video with rapper Ice Spice, according to social media posts.
The rapper, whose real name is Isis Gaston, was involved in a separate incident nearby but was not charged. However, a 34-year-old man who was in that vehicle with her, identified as Markus Grisham, was also charged with gun possession, cops said.
Merritt made headlines in June when he was shot multiple times during a robbery attempt at The Promenade in Edgewater, New Jersey, according to Bergen County prosecutors.
Another man, 22-year-old Antoine Boyd, was also wounded in the incident.
Merrit, who signed with Columbia in 2018, has more than seven million followers on Instagram and scored big with his debut album, “True 2 Myself,” which peaked at No. 5 on the US Billboard charts.
Source: New York Post
