Federal prosecutors have publicly identified Chicago rapper King Von, whose legal name was Dayvon Bennett, as the man who killed Gakirah Barnes, the 17-year-old Gangster Disciples affiliate known online as K.I. The allegation appeared in a 2023 court memo tied to a separate federal racketeering case and rested on eyewitness testimony from Barnes’s brother, who was wounded in the same 2014 attack. King Von was never charged with the murder. He was shot and killed in Atlanta in November 2020, roughly three years before prosecutors put his name to Barnes’s death in writing.
How Prosecutors Named King Von
The claim surfaced during the federal prosecution of six O’Block members for the August 2020 murder of rapper FBG Duck (Carlton Weekly). In a 68-page memo filed in 2023, prosecutors wrote that Barnes’s brother had “firsthand knowledge” that Barnes had shot and killed Odee Perry, a Black Disciple, in 2011, and that the brother personally saw King Von stand over 17-year-old Barnes and fire multiple shots into her in April 2014. The brother survived his own gunshot wounds from that attack.1Chicago Sun-Times. FBG Duck, King Von, Gakirah Barnes, O Block
Prosecutors did not include the detail to reopen a cold case. They used it to establish the long-running war between the O’Block faction of the Black Disciples and the rival Tookaville faction of the Gangster Disciples, the same feud they argued motivated the killing of FBG Duck. On January 17, 2024, a federal jury convicted all six O’Block defendants on the core murder and conspiracy counts, verdicts that carry mandatory life sentences.2ABC 7 Chicago. FBG Duck Death Verdict, O Block Street Gang3U.S. Department of Justice. Six Members or Associates of Violent Street Gang Convicted of Federal Racketeering Offenses Court filings in the same case also alleged that King Von had placed a “hit” on FBG Duck before the 2020 shooting, a claim prosecutors said was supported by a defendant’s text messages.1Chicago Sun-Times. FBG Duck, King Von, Gakirah Barnes, O Block
Because King Von was already dead when the memo was filed, none of the accusations against him were tested at trial and he was never asked to answer them in court.
Who Gakirah Barnes Was
Gakirah Barnes was born in 1997 and grew up in Woodlawn on Chicago’s South Side. Her father was killed before her first birthday. By 14 she had joined a Gangster Disciples splinter crew known as the Fly Boy Gang or STL Boys, named for St. Lawrence Avenue.4University of Pennsylvania. Gang Violence on the Digital Street The group’s main rivals were Black Disciples based at the Parkway Gardens complex a few blocks south, the area known as O’Block.5Chicago Sun-Times. O Block, Most Dangerous Block in Chicago
Police sources identified Barnes as the person who killed Odee Perry, a 20-year-old Black Disciple, in the summer of 2011. Perry’s murder gave O’Block its name.5Chicago Sun-Times. O Block, Most Dangerous Block in Chicago Street-level estimates put her at 15 to 20 shootings between 2011 and 2014, though she was never charged with a homicide. A 2011 charge for discharging a weapon ended in a not-guilty finding after witnesses recanted.6Chicago Sun-Times. Gakirah Barnes, Teenage Female Assassin
She was also unusually visible online. Using the handle @TyquanAssassin, taken in memory of a murdered friend named Tyquan Tyler, Barnes posted more than 27,000 tweets between late 2011 and her death, and picked up more than 2,500 followers.4University of Pennsylvania. Gang Violence on the Digital Street She called herself a “hitta,” tagged rivals by name, and posted about heading to rival territory armed. In one widely quoted tweet she wrote about bringing “a crate of guns” to Lamron, a Black Disciples stronghold. She used no privacy settings, and a Chicago Police Department social media unit that tried to reach her with de-escalation help was taunted online for the effort.7Chicago Sun-Times. Professor Studies Twitter Threats of Girl Gang Killer in Chicago
The Shooting on April 11, 2014
Around 3:30 p.m. on April 11, 2014, Barnes was walking on the sidewalk near the 6400 block of South Eberhart Avenue in Woodlawn when a gunman opened fire. Neighbors said she was struck at least nine times in the upper body, the force of the shots pushing her onto the steps of a nearby home. Two other people were wounded. Barnes was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead at 5:43 p.m.8NBC Chicago. Mother of Teen Girl Fatally Shot: It’s an Ongoing War Investigators believed she was the intended target.6Chicago Sun-Times. Gakirah Barnes, Teenage Female Assassin
Earlier that same day, Barnes had tweeted the address of the apartment where she and her friends were gathered, together with a photograph of the group posing on the front steps.7Chicago Sun-Times. Professor Studies Twitter Threats of Girl Gang Killer in Chicago No arrests were made at the time. A $10,000 reward was offered for information leading to a conviction, and her mother, Shontell Brown, described the killing as part of “an ongoing war.”8NBC Chicago. Mother of Teen Girl Fatally Shot: It’s an Ongoing War
The murder remained officially unsolved for nine years, until prosecutors named King Von in the FBG Duck memo.
Who King Von Was
Dayvon Bennett grew up in and around Parkway Gardens, the Black Disciples stronghold at 6400 South King Drive that became known as O’Block after Odee Perry’s 2011 killing.9Tablet Magazine. King Von Was a Shooter In July 2014, three months after Barnes’s death, he was charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder in the killing of 19-year-old Malcolm Stuckey at an Englewood birthday party. Prosecutors alleged that Bennett and co-defendant Michael Wade left the party, returned with loaded guns, and opened fire on people on a porch.10Homicide Watch Chicago. Dayvon Bennett Charged With Murder in Englewood Shooting Death of Malcolm Stuckey
Bennett was acquitted of all charges after Wade withdrew his agreement to testify against him. Wade was acquitted of murder but convicted of aggravated battery with a firearm and sentenced to 28 years.11Youth Today. A Pistol Bought in Mississippi Killed a Teen in Chicago After the acquittal, Bennett built a career as one of the most prominent voices in Chicago drill music, often rapping in detail about the O’Block-Tookaville feud.
Why King Von Was Never Charged
King Von was shot and killed early on November 6, 2020, outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge on Trinity Avenue in Atlanta. An argument between two groups in the parking lot escalated into a shootout. Both on-duty and off-duty officers were present and fired their weapons. Bennett was 26. A second man, 34-year-old Mark Blakely, was also killed, and four others were wounded. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case because officers had discharged their firearms.12CNN. King Von Shooting Suspect
Timothy Leeks, a 22-year-old known as Lul Tim, was arrested and charged with felony murder in the shooting.12CNN. King Von Shooting Suspect In August 2023 the charges were dismissed before Leeks was ever indicted. His attorney, Noah Pines, said “the case against Mr. Leeks was dismissed prior to ever being indicted.”13XXL Magazine. King Von Lul Tim Charges Dropped Prosecutors reportedly concluded the killing was an act of self-defense and that they could not prove otherwise.14Complex. King Von’s Alleged Killer Charges Dropped
By the time the FBG Duck memo naming Von as Barnes’s killer became public in 2023, Von had been dead for nearly three years. The allegation against him therefore lives only in a prosecution filing about other defendants, supported by the account of one witness who is himself a survivor of the same shooting.
The Aftermath: Lil Durk’s Murder-for-Hire Case
Von’s death set off its own cycle of alleged retaliation. Federal prosecutors have charged rapper Lil Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks and who is described as Von’s close friend and mentor, with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in connection with an August 2022 shooting at a Los Angeles gas station. The attack targeted rapper Quando Rondo (Tyquian Bowman) and killed Bowman’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson.15U.S. Department of Justice. Chicago Rapper Lil Durk Charged in Superseding Indictment
Prosecutors allege Banks put a monetary bounty on Quando Rondo in retaliation for Von’s killing, citing a text they say Banks sent the day after: “I can’t let this slide … [Bennett] dying turning me [into] a different animal.”16Rolling Stone. Lil Durk Murder for Hire Trial Racketeering Count Banks has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys have moved to dismiss the case, arguing prosecutors misled the grand jury by claiming he referenced the attack in a song that was actually recorded months earlier.17ABC 7 Chicago. Lil Durk Pushes to Dismiss Murder for Hire Case A separate defense motion says death threats aimed at the presiding judge and lead prosecutor, made by people demanding Banks’s release, were not disclosed to the defense for seven months, which attorneys called an “irreconcilable conflict of interest.”18NBC Chicago. Lil Durk Wants Murder for Hire Case Tossed Banks remains in federal custody after a judge denied bail on evidence that he attempted to flee to Dubai.19Billboard. Lil Durk Murder for Hire Trial Could Be Delayed Trial is scheduled to begin in January 2026.
Odee Perry in 2011. Gakirah Barnes in 2014. FBG Duck in 2020. King Von later that same year. Saviay’a Robinson in 2022. Each killing is treated in court filings and news reporting as an answer to the one before it, and the federal government’s identification of King Von as Barnes’s killer is the piece that finally connected the middle of that chain in writing.