47°
Mohamed Konate, 27, who was also wounded in a shootout with the victims, remains held in the county jail after being extradited from New York City.
Investigators said Konate walked up, pulled a gun and demanded money and jewelry from the rapper and two of his friends, Antoine Boyd, 22, and Jeffrey Valdez, 24, both from the Bronx, as they sat in a Dodge Durango at the upscale Promenade shopping center around midnight June 22.
Konate, who's also from the Bronx, ended up exchanging shots with someone in the car, they said.
Tione Jayden "Lil Tjay" Merritt, 21, was wounded, as were both Boyd and Konate, court papers show.
SEE: Arrests Made In Shooting Of Rapper 'Lil TJay' During Edgewater Robbery
Merritt was found at the scene of the shooting outside the Chipolte restaurant. He was airlifted to Hackensack University Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery after being shot in the thoracic cavity -- the space surrounded by the rib cage that contains the heart, lungs, esophagus and more.
Boyd made it to an Exxon station about a mile up River Road before being taken to the hospital.
An associate helped Konate to a BMW following the shooting, then dropped him off at Lennox Hill Hospital on East 77th Street off Park Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side less than a half-hour later, investigators said.
The associate wasn't identified, leading to speculation that the person may be cooperating with authorities.
NYPD detectives arrested Donate at the hospital. He was booked into the jail at Riker's Island two days later (June 24), records show.
Donate was brought to the Bergen County Jail on Wednesday to await a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack
He's charged with three counts of attempted murder, three counts of armed robbery and various other weapons offenses, including being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Valdez and Boyd are also charged with weapons offenses. Both were booked into the Bergen County Jail shortly after the shooting and then ordered released by a judge less than 24 hours later, according to court records.
Valdez had only just been released from a New Jersey prison after serving 2½ years for a gun conviction out of Paramus in 2018, records show.
Merritt, meanwhile, reportedly had a breathing tube removed at HUMC and was improving.
A melodic rapper who frequently uses Auto-Tune, Merritt takes his stage name from the first letter of his first name and first three letters of his middle name.
He once told an interviewer he's called the "Bronx Justin Bieber" because of his sampling of Bieber's "Baby."
"Lil Tjay" first became known as a "hip-hop heartthrob" in 2019 with the song "Resume," which got him a deal with Columbia Records. The debut studio album, "True 2 Myself," was released in 2019 and peaked at No. 5 on the US Billboard 200.
He has more than 7 million followers on Instagram and has charted two albums in the top five of Billboard's 200.
Merritt himself was arrested -- along with Boyd -- after city police said they found them and three other men with four loaded pistols in a Cadillac SUV stopped in Brooklyn in January 2021.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Edison and receive free news updates.
