An Atlanta rapper killed in a fiery crash on I-285 died of “blunt force injury to the head,” the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office said Thursday.
Carlos "Shawty Lo" Walker, the artist known for the hit "Dey Know," died Wednesday in a crash on the I-285 southbound ramp to Cascade Road, police said.
Medical Examiner’s office investigator Bertram Ennett said the manner of death was accidental. It was not immediately clear if alcohol was a factor in the crash.
Fulton police spokeswoman Cpl. Maureen Smith said a preliminary incident report was not available.
The crash happened about 2:20 a.m. and temporarily blocked the ramp to Cascade Road.
After initially describing the crash as a hit-and-run, police later said it was a one-car accident.
“The driver, 40 year old Carlos Walker, lost control of his vehicle, a 2016 Audi, leaving the roadway and striking a tree, causing the vehicle to overturn and catch fire,” Smith said.
Shawty Lo was ejected from the Audi and pronounced dead on the scene, Smith said. Two women in the car were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Their conditions were unknown Thursday.
Just before the deadly wreck, Shawty Lo was at the Blue Flame on Harwell Road. He referenced the Atlanta strip club early Wednesday in several posts on his Instagram page.
Hundreds of fans, childhood friends and relatives of the rapper gathered along Donald Lee Hollowell for a vigil Wednesday in the Bankhead neighborhood where Shawty Lo was raised.
“They really looked up to him, especially if you can be one of the ones that make it out,” friend Dontavius Dowell told Channel 2 Action News.
Shawty Lo was a member of the Atlanta rap group D4L, who scored a hit with "Laffy Taffy."
On social media, celebrities and friends expressed their condolences.
"Dear God, take care of my brother," D4L member Lefabian "Fabo" Williams wrote in a Twitter post. "#BankheadlegendShawty The realest ever created."
Rapper Future said: "legends never die…Shawty Lo Forever."
Shawty Lo made news in 2013 when the Oxygen television network announced plans for a special about his blended family, which includes 11 children with 10 women. After calls for a boycott and online petitions, the special entitled "All My Babies' Mamas" was scrapped before it even aired.
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