Rapper Goonew has been killed following a shooting incident in District Heights, Maryland. He was 24 years old.

The rapper, who was also known as Big Whizzle, died on Friday (March 18) after being shot. His death, which was confirmed to The Washington Post by his manager, comes nearly two years after he survived another shooting attempt in 2020.

Writing on Twitter after that, he posted: “I Ain’t Never Show This Pictures But July 5th Last Year They Told My Mother I Was Dead I Came Back… I’m Blessed & thankful I’m Still Here.”

It is not yet known if the two incidents are connected.

Goonew first made a name for himself in 2017 after working with Lil Dude, before signing with Hoodrich Pablo Juan. He had released several mixtapes including ‘Hey Auntie’, ‘Big 64’ and ‘Goonwick 2’.

He developed his style and fanbase over the next four years, with The Washington Post describing his music as “timeless”.

An obituary from the newspaper said: “The 24-year-old Maryland rapper had a gift for smearing time, phrasing his rhymes slightly in front of the beat, making the present moment feel weightless and imprecise. It gave his music an enchanted atemporality, but for Goonew, it all felt perfectly natural.”

Prelim: At approx. 5:40 pm, officers responded to the area for a report of a shooting. Once on scene, they located an adult male suffering from a gunshot wound. The victim was taken to a hospital for life threating injuries. At approx. 7:30 pm, the victim was pronounced dead.

— PGPDNEWS (@PGPDNews) March 19, 2022

His death comes just days after rapper Baby Cino died at age 20; he was shot just moments after being released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Centre in Miami. He’d been arrested on a gun charge.

As reported in The Miami Herald, Starks was picked up in a car upon his release from jail. Moments later, a shooter in another car took aim at the car Starks was travelling in.

The gunman reportedly fired at least 40 shots at the car. Starks’ car then hit a wall as it was travelling on the Palmetto Expressway. He reportedly suffered several gunshot wounds, including one to the head.

Corrections spokesman Juan Diasgranados said: “Miami-Dade Police is handling the investigation and the surrounding circumstances regarding this incident.”