COMMERCE TWP. (WWJ) - Rapper Obie Trice is facing a misdemeanor charge in connection with a shooting in Commerce Township last year.
The Oakland County Prosecutor's Office said Friday that Trice, who was arrested early in the morning of Dec. 6, has been charged with one count of possession of an unregistered firearm in connection with an incident that injured his girlfriend's teenage son.
The charge is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $100 fine.
According to authorities, the 18-year-old man was shot on Woodvale, Dr., near 14 Mile Rd. and Welch, in Commerce Township.
Oakland County Sheriff's deputies responded to Trice's home on a report from a neighbor who said he heard someone yelling that he'd been shot.
When they arrived, they found Trice, 42, walking out the front down, armed with a pistol. Deputies ordered Trice to drop the weapon and lie down on the ground. He complied, was arrested without incident. An unregistered 9mm semi-automatic Ruger was seized, officials said.
A sheriff's office investigation found that the events unfolded after Trice and his longtime girlfriend, who live together at the home, got into a fight. It's alleged, investigators said, that the man had been drinking all day and pushed the 40-year-old woman during the argument.
The woman's 18-year-old son intervened, officials said, confronting his mother's boyfriend, and a fight broke out.
When the mother and son decided to leave, the boyfriend went into his bedroom, it's alleged, got a handgun and went to the garage where he found the teen about to get into the car with his mom.
Sheriff's officials said the teen saw the gun, feared he'd be shot and tried to disarm the older man. They struggled over the weapon, according to investigators, both went to the ground and the gun discharged — striking the teen in the groin area.
The mom drove her son to Henry Ford Hospital in West Bloomfield where he was treated for a through-and-through gunshot wound to the groin area, as well as a fractured pelvis, and released.
Trice was born in Detroit. He signed to Shady Records in 2000, and has worked with Eminem on songs for the 8 Mile soundtrack, on the D12 album Devil's Night and other projects. He left Shady in 2008 to start the independent label Black Market Entertainment. Will his fifth album was released in August of this year, he's probably still best known for his 2002 track "Rap Name," feat. Eminem and the lyric: "Obie Trice; real name, no gimmicks."
