{"id":197355,"date":"2026-04-14T21:21:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197355\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:21:49","slug":"brooklyn-rapper-slain-by-stepson-didnt-want-pregnant-girlfriend-exposed-to-suspects-smoking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/197355\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn rapper slain by stepson didn’t want pregnant girlfriend exposed to suspect’s smoking"},"content":{"rendered":"

A burgeoning Brooklyn rapper cops believe was shot to death by his 16-year-old stepson in a clash over smoking in their NYCHA apartment was expecting a child with the suspect\u2019s mother \u2014 and didn\u2019t want the unborn baby exposed to second-hand smoke, relatives said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Jamel Davis\u2019 longtime live-in girlfriend first asked her son to stop smoking in the family\u2019s home in the Walt Whitman Houses<\/a> near Fort Greene Park, sparking a fight, according to the slain man\u2019s heartbroken brother.\u00a0The teen denied he had been smoking.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The victim\u2019s stepson) was being so disrespectful, calling her some names,\u201d said Davis\u2019 brother, Geo Miller, who spoke to Davis\u2019 girlfriend after the shooting. \u201cThat\u2019s what got my brother out the bed, to say, \u2018Hey bro, why are you talking to your mother like that? If you wasn\u2019t smoking that\u2019s fine but you don\u2019t need to talk to her like that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen one thing led to another,\u201d added Miller. \u201cIt didn\u2019t warrant (his death) \u2026 You don\u2019t do that to a person that treated you with love and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teen\u2019s mother is three months pregnant with Davis\u2019 child, according to the victim\u2019s brother. The teen being sought by cops is her only other child.<\/p>\n

Davis had everything to live for at the time of his shock slaying. The baby on the way would have been his third child. And after years of struggling to make headway in the rap scene, his new song \u201cSlidin\u201d<\/a>\u00a0was starting to\u00a0go viral <\/a>and even soundtracked a recent Instagram reel from 50 Cent.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe just never gave up. And when he turned 43 years old, he finally gets this opportunity,\u201d Miller, 40, said of his brother\u2019s recent success. \u201cAnd then he gets killed by his stepson. How do you make it this far to get killed by someone you raised?\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis was shot in the upper body inside the apartment on Cumberland Walk near Carlton Ave. about 10:50 a.m. Sunday, police said.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice at the scene where the 43-year-old victim was shot to death in his apartment on Cumberland Walk in Brooklyn on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Medics rushed Davis to\u00a0New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital,<\/a>\u00a0where he died.<\/p>\n

The shooter ran off after the shooting and has not been caught, police say. Cops are looking to question the victim\u2019s stepson as a person of interest, NYPD sources say.<\/p>\n

The victim was a well-loved mentor to local teens, helping to organize local basketball tournaments and urging them to not just rap but learn music production as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother wasn\u2019t a violent person,\u201d Miller said. \u201cHe gave back to the community along with his friends and he was just a great spirit. He was a family guy and that\u2019s what kills me about this entire situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JamelJamel Davis (pictured) was shot in the upper body inside his home in NYCHA’s Walt Whitman Houses on Cumberland Walk near Carlton Ave. in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on Sunday. (Instagram)<\/p>\n

Miller and his brother grew up in the Ingersoll Houses \u201cwith no mother and father,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, we were loving people,\u201d Miller said. \u201cMy brother was a loving guy since he was a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis performed under the name Sinthoro Upper.<\/a> He and the teen suspect\u2019s mother had been together for about eight years.<\/p>\n

\"AA memorial for Jamel Davis near his home. (Nicholas Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

After years of trying to make it big, his song \u201cSlidin\u201d suddenly gained some traction with listeners \u2014 something that surprised Davis more than anyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing is that he was just playing on the song,\u201d his brother recalled. \u201cHe saw a movie and it was like some type of mob movie and he was reenacting certain things \u2026 He was having a good time in the studio, joking around. So that wasn\u2019t a real record \u2014 it just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

50 Cent soundtracked a March 16 Instagram reel with \u201cSlidin,\u201d which helped draw in scores of listeners. In a podcast interview posted just three weeks ago, Davis was thrilled by his newfound success<\/a>. \u201cI look on the phone and say, \u2018What, 50?\u2019\u201d he told the hosts of \u201cTalk Ya Talk.\u201d \u201cI said, \u2018What?!?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a welcome reward for a man who spent years trying to make it in the music business, his brother said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a dream he wanted to be an artist. When I say artist, it\u2019s not just a rapper, he was a composer, he wrote songs, he wrote songs for other people,\u201d Miller said. \u201cHis dedication, drive and his voice and his flow, it basically took over everything. That was his gift. His gift was, \u2018I can do music.\u2019 He is musically inclined and he had that in his spirit since 10 years old. He implemented that old soul into his records.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis leaves behind a 16-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son in addition to the baby on the way, Miller said.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice at the scene where the 43-year-old victim was shot to death in his apartment building on Cumberland Walk in Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Until Sunday, Davis and his stepson appeared to get along, the victim\u2019s sibling said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never was a situation where my brother did any harm to him,\u201d he said. \u201cHis mother would say that he treated her son like he was his.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never heard him say more than three words at a time ever,\u201d Miller said of the suspect. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even believe (he was responsible). I said, \u2018It can\u2019t be true!’\u201d<\/p>\n

But Miller did say the teen had recently started hanging out with the wrong crowd and became a teenage delinquent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is heading for disaster,\u201d Miller said of the victim\u2019s stepson. \u201cTo take my brother\u2019s life for nothing, (something) you could have walked away from? There was no violence, no physical altercation, it was just words. It was just words from a father to son.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor you to have that much hate in your heart after this man took care of you, that means you were on a demonic path,\u201d he added. \u201cThey got to find him.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Rocco Parascandola<\/p>\n

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