A local hip-hop performer was arrested for the second time this week in the same case, while another man was charged with attempted murder related to a robbery and shooting involving hip-hop star Fetty Wap on the south side of Paterson over the weekend, authorities said Wednesday.
Raheem Thomas, 36, a Paterson resident known as “Fuzz” in the hip-hop world, was charged with armed robbery in addition to aggravated assault and other counts that had been filed against him on Sunday, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Deputy Paterson Police Chief Troy Oswald said in a news release. In another release, they said Sylvester Huffin, 34, of Paterson was charged with two counts of attempted murder and other offenses in the same matter.
A third man was charged with robbery but was not yet in custody, according to court papers.
Police have said a scuffle broke out between two groups inside the Montclair Deli on Montclair Avenue in the early-morning hours Sunday when someone ripped a chain from Fetty Wap’s neck. In court papers, they said Thomas pistol-whipped an unidentified man as someone else took the man’s backpack.
Police had said Fetty Wap, whose given name is Willie Maxwell II and who grew up in Paterson, was not injured in the incident and that he and his friends were not considered suspects. However, a profile for a Sylvester Huffin on LinkedIn lists him as an executive producer of Fetty Wap’s label, RGF Productions.
Authorities initially said shots were fired after the dispute spilled outside. On Wednesday, they said the shooting took place an hour after the robbery, but they did not explain what happened during the time between the two incidents. Three people were wounded in the shooting, police said, adding that none of the injuries was life threatening.
They said two people were taken from the scene to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center and another man was treated at Hackensack University Medical Center after showing up there. On Wednesday, a city official with knowledge of the case said Huffin was the man who went to Hackensack and may have accidentally shot himself during the melee. The official asked that his identity not be revealed because he was not authorized to discuss the case. The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office declined to confirm media reports that one of the men shot himself.
Thomas, who has had a public feud with Fetty Wap, was being held at the Passaic County Jail on Wednesday after a court hearing and was expected to have another hearing on Monday afternoon to determine whether he will remain in custody, said Seth Galkin, a Passaic County assistant prosecutor. Thomas was released on Monday after the initial charges under the state’s new bail guidelines, authorities said, but was arrested again on Tuesday, according to court papers.
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Police said in court documents that they found a .45-caliber Springfield handgun in his possession. The gun, they said, had been reported stolen in Colorado. Thomas also was found to be in possession of armor-piercing bullets, according to court documents. He was charged with first-degree armed robbery in addition to the previous assault charge, and faced several weapons offenses, including violating a state law that bars convicted felons from having guns, according to court papers.
Authorities announced the new charges against him on Wednesday just a short time before they announced the charges against Huffin. Police have not said what led them to initially charge Thomas, or whether they had reviewed video surveillance from cameras inside the deli. They also have not disclosed whether Thomas and Huffin were adversaries or allies in the dispute.
Huffin allegedly fired a handgun that wounded two victims outside the deli, according to court documents. He also faces weapons charges, according to court papers, including possessing a gun despite being a felon barred from having one. Police arrested him on Sunday and filed charges against him the next day, according to court documents. Authorities did not specify what evidence led them to charge Huffin or whether they recovered the handgun that he used. They said he is scheduled to appear at Central Judicial Processing at the Superior Courthouse in Paterson “at a later date to be determined.”
He was not being held at the Passaic County Jail on Wednesday, and the Prosecutor’s Office declined to say where he was being held, or even whether he was in custody. Police did not say whether anyone else fired a weapon in the incident.
A third man, Latwyn A. Thomas, was charged with robbery, according to a criminal complaint filed in court. Police said in the complaint that he pulled a backpack off a man inside the deli as Raheem Thomas struck the man in the head with a handgun. The city official with knowledge of the case said Latwyn and Raheem Thomas are brothers. Latwyn Thomas had not been arrested as of Wednesday, according to court papers.