Chicago rapper Bloodhound Q50 was struck five times as armed gunmen unleashed 50 gunshots during an ambush attack last month at a Fuller Park gas station, according to a newly released autopsy report.
The report shows the 22-year-old rapper, born Mikquale T. Cooper, was shot in his head, neck, back and left shoulder. No arrests have been reported.
About 50 rifle and 9 mm casings were recovered around the BP gas station at 4248 S. Wentworth Ave., according to the report from the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Cooper had cannabis, a benzodiazepine and opioids in his system, the report shows.
He drove a white Tesla into the gas station around 4 a.m. on Sept. 13, according to a Chicago police report. After he parked, a black Infiniti with two masked occupants pulled up next to his car.
As Cooper and his girlfriend went into the store, another car drove into the lot with more masked occupants, the police report says. When Cooper returned to the Tesla, six assailants jumped out of the cars and began shooting.
Cooper’s girlfriend told officers she ran from the Tesla and hid in a stranger’s car, according to records included in the autopsy report. She also told officers people wanted Cooper dead.
About a month before the attack, Cooper acknowledged the target on his back, telling rap vlogger DJ Akademiks: “I’m not chasing death, but … I’m not running from it either.”
Guns and violence had become cornerstones of his young adult life.
His cousin, another rapper who went by Bloodhound Zmoney, was fatally shot in March 2023, Cooper said in the same interview. Cooper was shot in his leg that same year.
Then, two of Cooper’s other associates — rappers Bloodhound Lil Jeff and Lil Scoom89 — were killed in the summer of 2024.
Another deadly shooting late last month also had potential ties to Cooper.
Around 7 p.m. on Sept. 25, two masked gunmen fired on a vehicle in the 7500 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, according to police.
The driver, Naseem D. Stevens, fled and the gunmen followed, shooting at him in traffic, police said.
Stevens was shot multiple times and crashed his vehicle about a block later. He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, police said.
His vehicle had a “funeral” sticker on it at the time of shooting, according to a police report. The report noted Cooper’s funeral had taken place earlier that day in Merrillville, Indiana, but said it was “uncertain” if Stevens’ slaying was linked.
It also mentioned Cooper’s ties to the Gresham Police District where the shooting occurred.
Officers received a department alert days earlier warning them of a “heightened potential for retaliatory violence” following Cooper’s funeral, according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.