On the evening of November 26, 2003, the day before Thanksgiving, 26-year-old James Adarryl Tapp Jr., a Black male known professionally as the rapper Soulja Slim, was gunned down on the front lawn of his mother's home in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans. An assailant shot him at least four times, with bullets striking him in the face and chest.
The sudden violence of the act sent shockwaves through the local community and the wider hip-hop world.
The investigation into his murder soon led police to a suspect. On December 31, 2003, authorities arrested 22-year-old Garelle Smith in connection with the killing. During the arrest, police found a stolen police pistol in Smith's possession. Ballistics tests confirmed that the bullets from this weapon matched those that killed Tapp. Despite this crucial piece of evidence, the case against Smith faltered. No witnesses were willing to come forward and testify against him. This lack of cooperation from the community ultimately led to Smith's release, and the charges against him were dropped, leaving Soulja Slim's murder officially unsolved.
Rumors circulated that Smith had been a hired hitman, allegedly paid $10,000 for the murder. Over the following years, Garelle Smith was arrested for other murders, but in each instance, the charges were eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence or witness testimony. His story, however, came to a violent end on August 13, 2011, when he was found shot to death. While some in the community considered his death a form of street justice, the person or people who ordered the killing of Soulja Slim have never been identified, and the case remains a cold case with the New Orleans District Attorney's office.
