Rapper Kenny Clutch's father: Son 'victim' of Las Vegas shooting

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="Kenny Clutch. Credit: KTLA" src="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef017d41398ef3970c-640wi" /><br /><br /><div class="entry-body" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">The father of "Kenny Clutch," the Oakland rapper killed on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday, claimed his son's body in Las Vegas on Saturday and urged the public not to judge his son.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">The 27-year-old, whose real name was Kenneth Cherry, was killed early Thursday when bullets fired from a black Range Rover peppered his Maserati, authorities said.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">His  father, Kenneth Cherry Sr., said at a news conference Saturday that there has been much misinformation on the Internet about his son and that he did nothing wrong, <a href="http://www.lvrj.com/news/father-of-man-killed-on-strip-calls-him-a-good-kid-192760461.html" style="color: #2262cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">according to</a> the Las Vegas Review-Journal.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"He was a victim just like any other victim," Cherry's father said, according to <a href="http://www.lvrj.com/news/father-of-man-killed-on-strip-calls-him-a-good-kid-192760461.html" style="color: #2262cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">a video</a> on the newspaper's website. "He was no different than any of you guys."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Family members in Oakland have also spoken out.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"Right now my heart is breaking," said Pat Sims, Cherry's aunt. "This has really been a tragedy. Kenny was just a delightful kid."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-me-gunfire-on-las-vegas-strip-pictures-20130221,0,4737843.photogallery" style="color: #2262cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_self"><strong>PHOTOS: Shots fired on the Las Vegas strip</strong></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"I can tell you this ... the world has lost a good man," Sims said. "I'm not saying he didn't have his faults, but he was very kind, especially to older people. Whatever happened in Vegas, I don't know about, but he was a very kind soul."</div></div><a href="" id="more" name="more" style="background-color: white; color: #2262cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"></span><div class="entry-more" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">The younger Cherry's attorney, Vicki Greco, <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_22648316/kenny-clutch-rapper-from-oakland-dies-shooting-crash" style="color: #2262cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">told</a> the San Jose Mercury News that he "was into gangsta rap, but that's not who he was."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"In my interaction with him, I can tell you that by the way he looked and what he put out there on his videos, he fit a certain stereotype," Greco said. "But I also can tell you that away from that, he was anything but that kind of stereotype. He was honest. He was loyal. He was very dependable. Sometimes he'd drop by my office just to say hello. He was a nice, nice kid."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://graphics.latimes.com/storyboard-violence-vegas/" style="color: #2262cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_self"><strong>INTERACTIVE MAP: Shooting in Las Vegas</strong></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Authorities said Cherry and the Range Rover had left the Aria resort hotel and were heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard at 4:20 a.m., a time when the casino marquees shine bright but the gambling thoroughfare is largely empty. At Harmon Avenue, people in the Range Rover opened fire on Cherry's Maserati, police said.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">The silver-gray sports car, which was struck several times, sped into the intersection at Flamingo Road, ramming a taxi, officials said. The taxi exploded, killing the driver and a passenger. Four other vehicles in the intersection were also involved in the crash and explosion, but police offered no details about them.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Cherry died later at a hospital.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">No arrests have been made.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">“This is something you never want to go through,” Cherry's father told KNTV. “This is the hardest thing in my life right now, because you never want your children to leave before you leave.”</div></div></div>

Kenny Clutch Rapper Kenny Clutch's father: Son 'victim' of Las Vegas shooting

The father of "Kenny Clutch," the Oakland rapper killed on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday, claimed his son's body in Las Vega...

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Oakland rapper 'Kenny Clutch' killed in Las Vegas Strip shooting

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="347" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://widget.newsinc.com/single.html?WID=1&VID=24464836&freewheel=69016&sitesection=latimes&w=620&h=347" width="620"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">One of the victims in a <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vegas-shooting-20130222,0,458892.story" style="color: #2262cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">spectacular predawn shooting</a> and crash on the Las Vegas Strip has been identified as Kenneth Cherry Jr., an aspiring rapper known as Kenny Clutch.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">His attorney, Vicki Greco, said his death was shocking.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"Out of everyone I know in the rapping industry, there is no way I would have ever, ever expected to find that he was shot on the Las Vegas Strip in such an aggressive manner," Greco said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"He didn't have a [criminal] record or a history. He was just a good kid trying to make it and be a good father." Cherry had two children, she said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">According to his Facebook page, Cherry is from Oakland and lived in Las Vegas.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">He died early Thursday morning when bullets fired from a black Range Rover peppered his Maserati, authorities said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">They said Cherry and the occupants of the Range Rover had left the Aria resort hotel and were heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard at 4:20 a.m., an hour when the casino marquees shine brightly but the gambling thoroughfare is largely empty. At Harmon Avenue, occupants inside the Range Rover opened fire on the Maserati, police said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">The silver-gray sports car, which was struck several times, sped into the intersection at Flamingo Road, ramming a Yellow cab, officials said. The taxi exploded, killing the driver and a passenger. Four other vehicles in the intersection were also involved in the crash and explosion, but police offered no details.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Cherry died later at a hospital.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Police had more questions than answers.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"It began with a dispute at a nearby hotel and spilled onto the streets," said Capt. Chris Jones of the Las Vegas Police Robbery and Homicide Division.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">Cherry's aunt, Pat Sims of Oakland, told the <a href="http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_22636325/3-dead-several-hurt-las-vegas-strip-shooting" style="color: #2262cc; text-decoration: none;" target="_self">Oakland Tribune</a> that her nephew was a kind soul.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">"I can tell you this ... the world has lost a good man," Sims said. "I'm not saying he didn't have his faults, but he was very kind, especially to older people. Whatever happened in Vegas, I don't know about, but he was a very kind soul."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">The newspaper reported that Cherry had several arrests in Oakland and Berkeley, many for gun charges. He was convicted on a gun charge in 2007, stemming from an arrest in Berkeley, sources told the Tribune, although details on that conviction weren't immediately available.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; padding: 0px;">In 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot and killed two blocks from Thursday's accident scene, at the intersection of Flamingo Boulevard and Koval Lane, as he rode in a car driven by Death Row Records Chairman Marion "Suge" Knight.</div></div>

Kenny Clutch Oakland rapper 'Kenny Clutch' killed in Las Vegas Strip shooting

One of the victims in a  spectacular predawn shooting  and crash on the Las Vegas Strip has been identified as Kenneth Cherry Jr., an aspiri...

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