Chicago drill rapper BloodHound Q50 was shot and killed early Sunday morning in a coordinated attack involving six gunmen at a South Side gas station, cutting short the life of one of the city's fastest-rising young rappers.

Q50, whose real name was Mikquale T. Cooper, was 22.

The shooting unfolded shortly before 4 a.m. Sept. 13 at a BP gas station at 4248 S. Wentworth Ave. in Chicago's Fuller Park neighborhood. According to a Chicago police report obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times, Cooper arrived at the station in a white Tesla with a 29-year-old woman before two other vehicles carrying masked occupants appeared at the location.

What happened next appeared highly coordinated.

Police records say a black Infiniti carrying two masked people pulled alongside Cooper's vehicle. A Honda Accord carrying four additional masked occupants also entered the gas station.

Cooper and the woman went inside the store. While they were there, police say someone from the Infiniti walked to the Honda and removed items from the vehicle.

When Cooper eventually returned to the Tesla and got behind the wheel, all six assailants allegedly moved toward his vehicle and opened fire.

Cooper was struck in the chest and shoulder.

He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center and pronounced dead at approximately 4:35 a.m. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office later determined that Cooper died from multiple gunshot wounds and ruled his death a homicide.

Witness Describes Barrage of Gunfire

The scale of the shooting was immediately visible at the scene.

A witness who spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times said the gunfire began almost immediately after he got out of his own vehicle at the gas station. He described hearing at least two weapons firing rapidly and estimated that more than 100 shots may have been fired.

Police evidence markers covered the area, while Q50's Tesla was riddled with bullet damage. Gunfire also struck the windows of a Subway restaurant attached to the gas station and damaged other property nearby.

The witness also described a chilling detail allegedly relayed to him by the woman who had been with Q50.

According to the witness, she said one of the attackers approached while Cooper was inside the store and warned her that it would be her boyfriend's “last night alive.”

That account, combined with the number of masked assailants and the arrival of two separate vehicles, has contributed to the description of the killing as an ambush.

Authorities, however, have not publicly announced a motive.

Surveillance Footage Captures Q50's Final Minutes

Video surveillance from the gas station has since circulated widely online.

Footage appears to show Cooper moving between the convenience store and parking lot shortly before the attack. Another angle shows the white Tesla moments before multiple people converge on the vehicle and gunfire erupts.

The videos have spread rapidly across social media and throughout Chicago's drill community, where Q50 had developed a significant following.

But the footage has also produced a wave of online theories about who was responsible and why.

None of those theories should currently be treated as established fact.

Chicago police have not announced any arrests, identified the shooters or publicly disclosed a motive for Cooper's killing. The homicide investigation remains ongoing.

Q50 Had Spoken About the Danger Around Him

Q50's death is particularly striking because the rapper had publicly discussed the danger surrounding his lifestyle only weeks before he was killed.

During an interview with DJ Akademiks, Cooper acknowledged that he believed he could be a target.

“I'm not chasing death, but ... I'm not running from it either,” he said.

“One slipup [and] you're gone.”

Those comments have circulated heavily since his death, but they do not establish who killed him or why.

Q50 had already experienced substantial loss around him.

His cousin, rapper BloodHound ZMoney, was fatally shot in 2023. Q50 later described that killing as his first experience losing someone close to him because of street violence. Two other rappers close to him, BloodHound Lil Jeff and Lil Scoom89, were killed in 2024.

Q50 himself survived a shooting in September 2023 after being struck in the leg in Chicago's Irving Park neighborhood.

A Rising Career Cut Short

By 2026, Q50 had emerged as one of the recognizable faces of Chicago's newer drill generation.

His profile expanded through songs and collaborations as he built an audience beyond the city, working with artists including VonOff1700 and EST Gee. He had also performed at Rolling Loud and accumulated more than one million monthly Spotify listeners around the time of his death.

His latest project, Get Back or Die Trying, arrived in August, only weeks before the shooting.

The rapper had continued releasing music in the days leading up to his death, including the video for “Too Stuck.”

Now his killing is generating another wave of music and social-media reaction throughout Chicago's drill scene, including diss records and posts referencing Q50 and his BloodHound associates.

One of the tracks circulating in the aftermath is Billionaire Black's “Indiana Pt. 4,” which has been described online as a BloodHound Q50 diss.

At this stage, however, there is no publicly established evidence connecting that song, its lyrics or the artist behind it to Q50's homicide. Police have not announced a motive or identified any suspects. Any attempt to use drill lyrics or online rivalries to identify Q50's killers would therefore go beyond what investigators have publicly established.

Six Gunmen, Two Vehicles and No Arrests

What authorities have established paints a disturbing picture on its own.

A 22-year-old rapper arrived at a South Side gas station in a Tesla. Two vehicles carrying masked occupants arrived around him. After Q50 returned to the driver's seat, police say six gunmen approached and unleashed a barrage of bullets before escaping in the two vehicles.

Q50 was dead roughly half an hour later.

No arrests have been announced.

And despite the theories, accusations and music now circulating online, Chicago police have not publicly said what prompted the attack or who ordered or carried it out.

For now, the killing of BloodHound Q50 remains an open homicide investigation—and another young life lost as his career was beginning to reach far beyond Chicago.