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sun-sentinel.com/fl-rick-ross-in-broward-20130128,0,3588469,full.story
Rick Ross has spent years cultivating a thuggish persona deserving of the now-prophetic nickname "Teflon Don." But he is probably just as surprised as anyone to have joined the phrase "drive-by shooting" and "Las Olas Boulevard" in the same sentence on Monday morning.
If the chart-topping rapper was looking for a posh lair in which to hide from the glare of the Miami rap scene, he probably thought he'd found it on a remote spit of property on Fort Lauderdale's luxurious Seven Isles.
Ross was headed in the direction of that home at about 5 a.m. Monday when, according to Fort Lauderdale police, his silver 2011 Rolls-Royce was targeted by a barrage of bullets near the corner of Las Olas Boulevard and Southeast 15th Avenue. None of the bullets found its mark, but Ross' car ended up running into a two-story apartment building behind the iconic Floridian restaurant. The suspects remain at large, police said.
Ross and a female companion, Shateria L. Moragne-el, 28, a fashion stylist and designer, of Davie, were uninjured, as was the apartment tenant, Beth Balk, a Floridian waitress.
"I've never seen anything like this happen," Balk said. "It's quiet on Las Olas, certainly on a Sunday night."
A few hours earlier, Ross celebrated his 37th birthday with a performance at Liv nightclub at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach. No incident was reported there, according to a hotel spokeswoman.
One of the bullets appeared to have entered a front window of the Floridian, a 24-hour diner where the city's politicians often drop in. They include Mayor John P. "Jack" Seiler, who was not dining there Monday morning.
"It's absolutely one of the most-unexpected activities to happen on Las Olas and hopefully it will be for the next 10 years," Seiler said of the event that briefly shut down the heart of the city's picturesque byway. "That's my goal, that we don't see something like this happen again. I don't ever want to hear of a shooting anywhere in the city."
Calling Fort Lauderdale "a wonderful place to be," he said, "there will probably be more news stories today about our perfect weather than this shooting. I suspect nobody is going to change their plans or that this will impact tourism one bit."
Seiler said he did not previously know who Ross was and was unfamiliar with his music.
"I had to ask around and learn about how big he is in the industry," Seiler said.
If the multimillion-dollar waterfront mansion adorned with a Rolls-Royce and a yacht named "City of Miami" is a rap-video cliché, Ross made sure the $4.7 million home was far off the hip-hop grid, on a bucolic cul-de-sac at the end of a maze of family-friendly streets, where the annual Halloween trick-or-treating begins with a send-off by a high-school marching band.
"That doesn't surprise me. That's Rick," said Derrick Baker, a Ross confidante and program director at the rap-oriented radio station WEDR, also know as 99 Jamz. "Once he steps away from the music, he's a family guy. Real chill."
If there is a theme that evolves from conversations with Broward County residents who have crossed paths with Ross, who also owns a $1 million home in Davie, it is that he's not the menacing black-leather misogynist of such videos as Wale's "Bag of Money."
"There are no complaints about him as a neighbor," said a Seven Isles neighbor who did not want to be identified. "He was friendly, always waved and slowed down for the kids."
The neighbor said she would see Ross frequently walking in the morning with a woman, getting exercise. The Seven Isles home is listed under his mother's name.
Baker said he has been friends with Ross, working on the rapper's education and charity projects, since 2005. Ross has been a frequent guest at the station's Hollywood studios, and did a half-hour on the air on Friday. Baker said he was "upbeat, very happy and excited" about his birthday and the imminent release of his sixth album, "Mastermind."
It is at that intersection of commerce and street cred that bad blood has been spilled between Ross and his rivals, most prominently 50 Cent. The rapper-actor, born Curtis Jackson, has made no secret of his belief that the urban-thug image of the Carol City-raised Rick Ross, born William Roberts, is manufactured.
"Hahaha fat boy hit the building?" 50 Cent wrote on his Twitter account on Monday. "Lol it looks staged to me. No hole's in da car."
WEDR's Baker said record sales may be at the root of 50 Cent's animosity, calling it "an on-wax feud," and laughed at the suggestion that Ross would stage a shooting to boost his reputation.
"Could this be an elaborate way to sell albums? I don't think Rick would go down that route, especially with someone else in the car.," Baker said. "And you don't mess up a nice Rolls like that."
Baker said he had not been able to reach Ross on Monday.
Ross has a Florida arrest history for mostly misdemeanor offenses that include brawling in 2004 and carrying a concealed weapon and marijuana possession in 2008. Florida Department of Law Enforcement online records show he pleaded no contest in those cases and adjudication was withheld.
Before those arrests, Ross was a lawman, which does not help his reputation in the rap industry.
From age 19 until he was 21, he worked as a state corrections officer at the South Florida Reception Center before leaving in June 1997, the Florida Department of Corrections confirmed Monday.
An attorney who has previously represented Ross, Allan Zamren, would not comment.
In 2011, Ross suffered a seizure while traveling on a Delta Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale to Memphis. (Baker said the cause was "exhaustion.") In March 2012, a man's body was found in the yard of a Miami Gardens home that Ross owns, though police said Ross was not a suspect.
Ross has been one of the formative figures in the development of the Miami rap sound since his 2006 album on Slip-N-Slide Records, "Port of Miami," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart.
Ross has been equally influential as a producer, and his Maybach Music Group label has a roster of acts that frequently sprinkle the Billboard charts, including Meek Mill, Wale and Omarion.
Ross will soon appear on Season 2 of the Starz hit "Magic City," the Mitch Glazer-scripted drama filmed in Miami. Ross is apparently a fan of the show, and an impromptu set visit resulted in Glazer writing Ross into the show in the role of Butterball, the proprietor of an illegal Cuban-American gambling house.
Sean Gilbert, of Fort Lauderdale, is a cameraman on the show and recalls Ross showing up for a daylong shoot in a rough Miami neighborhood without an entourage. Ross was "very low-key and accessible," Gilbert said.
Jeff John, owner of Revolution Live nightclub in Fort Lauderdale's Himmarshee District, has hosted Ross several times, including a sold-out show six months ago for Wale and Meek Mill. Ross got onstage unannounced to do four songs, John said. As far as he knows, Ross didn't get paid.
"He was totally cool, a real nice guy, sitting in the back chilling," John said.
