A popular hip-hop deejay and TV personality was gunned down in cold blood just steps from his Staten Island home today, law-enforcement sources said.
Corey McGriff, who went by the name DJ Megatron on WQHT-FM Hot 97 radio, may have been distracted talking his cellphone when he was ambushed on Osgood Avenue near Vanderbilt Avenue in Clifton at about 2 a.m. and shot once in the chest, sources said.
Witnesses told cops they saw at least four young men running from the area after the shooting.
“It was bad timing — being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” insisted the victim’s stunned mother, Louvenia McGriff, indicating that the motive was robbery.
But police sources said they’ve all but ruled out a street stickup. There were no witnesses, and McGriff’s wallet was found on him, as was his cell phone. Instead, investigators said they are looking at several scenarios, including whether someone with a beef, possibly over a bad debt, targeted McGriff, 32.
Several months ago, a person using the name “Megapayup” raged against McGriff on youtube, saying:
“Megatron, i use to think he was mad cool .¤.¤. I always helped him out when ever he needed it. .¤.¤. This one time tho, I was the fool.” The writer added: “Bad shyt will stay happening to u, cuz you do bad.”
Louvenia McGriff said she was told that it didn’t appear that McGriff had put up a fight when he was confronted because he had no wounds except from the bullet that tore through his left rib cage, lung and heart.
Two residents called 911 saying they heard gunfire, but by the time cops arrived, McGriff was already dead, laying flat on his back on the pavement, his eyes open.
In addition to his radio gig, McGriff appeared on TV’s BET musical countdown show “106.
He had three children: a daughter Zaharia, 11, and sons, Zion, 4, and Isaiah, 9 months.
The victim had been in trouble in the past, having racked up several arrests for marijuana possession and sale, police sources said. He also received probation in 2007 for a weapons bust in New Jersey.
But his career had taken off recently, and he was considering making the move to local TV news, said brother Marlon.
Additional reporting by John Doyle, Kevin Fasick and Frank Rosario