In response to
the theft of rapper Andre Mac Dre" Hicks’ tombstone, the family of the slain
Hip-Hop star is considering relocating his remains to Vallejo, California.
Bernard Hicks, the uncle of Mac Dre, said the family is considering returning
the Oakland-born rapper’s remains to Vallejo, to keep a better watch over them.
The 50-pound tombstone was recently reported missing from the Oakland Mountain
View Cemetery after a visitor attempted to visit Mac Dre’s cemetery plot,
but was unable to find the location. "We just think it’s some kind
of fan. Some crazed fan who put it in their house," Hicks told Oakland newspaper
The Argus. Hicks
said he was notified of the theft by Oakland police on Tuesday (Aug. 24).
"They said it was taken and they didn’t have no suspects, that’s all we know
right now." While there is a $10,000 reward for any information leading
to the arrests of the perpetrators, Hicks says that the family won’t go to
the police if the tombstone is given back. “There
will be no trouble, no going to the police, we just want the headstone returned,"
Hicks said.In
the mid 1990’s while enjoying a surge in popularity on the Northern California
rap scene, Mac Dre was accused of being affiliated with The Romper Room Gang,
a group of men accused of robbing a string of banks. In 1991, Dre was
arrested and charged with bank robbery when the FBI spotted him riding in a vehicle
with one the suspected bank robbers. He served five years in prison. Mac
Dre was later killed in a drive-by shooting and crash on Kansas City’s U.S. 71
highway in November 2004. Police have no suspects in Mac Dre’s death, but believe
he was gunned down after a dispute over a payment for a concert.Police
suspected Kansas City rapper Anthony "Fat Tone" Watkins was behind Mac
Dre’s murder. There was a rumor that Fat Tone admitted to the shooting, charges
the rapper denied.Six
months after the murder of Mac Dre, Fat Tone and friend Jermaine "Cowboy"
Akins were murdered in Las Vegas. Fat Tone’s family members told police that he
went to Las Vegas, after Mac Minister promised a meeting with Snoop Dogg.In
May 2005, the men were found shot to death in an abandoned construction area.
Fat Tone was shot 20 times, while Akins was hit 13 times with an assault rifle.Prior
to his murder, Fat Tone had been involved in a number of violent altercations
in Kansas City. He was arrested for the murder of a pregnant woman, but the charges
were dropped. In
2003, he was shot multiple times while riding in an SUV with Sacramento rapper
C-Bo, San Francisco rapper Messy Marv and others. In
2004, an unknown gunman shot at Fat Tone, one month before Mac Dre was gunned
down. Police
claim Mac Minister was in Las Vegas, staying with a friend named Jason Mathis
and a call girl named Lee Danae Laursen. The two men were allegedly scene leaving
a hotel with Fat Tone and Akins hours before their murders.Mac
Minister was featured on Fox’s America’s Most Wanted in Feb. 2006. He was
apprehended a month later. Two
days after Mac Minister and Mathis were indicted for the murders of Fat Tone and
Akins, Laursen was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Mac
Minister is currently in a Las Vegas jail and will stand trial for the murders
of Watkins and Akins on Sept. 11.
