A rising Brooklyn rapper was killed during a dispute just as his career was starting to take off.
Jamel Davis, 43, also known as Sinthoro, was fatally shot by his 16-year-old stepson Tristan Hightower on April 12 at the Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene after an argument escalated, according to The New York Post.
Police said the conflict began when the teen’s mother, who is three months pregnant, texted her son asking him not to smoke marijuana in the apartment because she was worried about the impact it would have on her unborn baby.
The issue had reportedly caused tension in the household.
The disagreement turned into a verbal confrontation, and Davis stepped in before the teen went to his bedroom, retrieved a gun from a shoebox, and shot him once in the chest and once in the arm, authorities said.
Davis was taken to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he later died.
His music had recently started gaining attention, with his song “Slide” picking up traction on local hip-hop stations and supposedly appearing in an Instagram Reel by 50 Cent.
“It’s devastating for the community because we were all rooting for him, and he finally got his shot, and now he was taken away,” said Davis’ friend Anthony Mabry to the New York Daily News. “He is 43, and people were doubting him, people saying, ‘Pass the mic! But he stayed with it. And he was finally getting that taste — and it’s like, ‘You took it from him.’”
Hightower was arrested in the Bronx on Tuesday morning and appeared “very disheveled, like he’s been out on the street since the incident,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told The Post.
The teen had two prior domestic incident reports involving his mother in 2025, including one where she told police her son had access to a firearm believed to be the same one used in the shooting. Kenny said he did not know if Hightower had the weapon at the time of his arrest and noted that officers needed a warrant to search his backpack.
Hightower has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a loaded firearm, and the court will determine whether he will be tried as an adult or a juvenile.
Mabry also reflected on the timing of Davis’ death, saying, “He was doing the music so long, and they just put his music on the radio. He was grinding all of his life … God finally gave him his blessing within the month of this happening.”
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