Rapper Hollywood Play Shot And Killed Outside Of Club In Queens

Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Rapper Hollywood Play Shot Dead In Front Of Queens Lounge

A rapper was gunned down in front of a lounge in Queens, New York where he was hosting a birthday party early on Sunday morning, according to authorities.

35-year-old Frank Snyder, known by the stage name “Hollywood Play,” reportedly stepped out of Tavern Lounge on Jamaica Avenue at about 3:15 a.m. According to police, a black sedan then pulled up in front of the club, and a gunman got out and began firing toward the lounge.

Snyder was shot once in the leg and once in his neck, authorities said. He was immeadiately rushed to Jamaica Hospital and there he was pronounced dead.

It was not immediately clear if Hollywood Play was the intended target of the shooting, according to police, but a bartender at the lounge said that the shooter did appear to be aiming for the rapper.

“They targeted him,” Tiesajah Reynolds said Sunday morning. “There was a couple other people outside. I feel like they had to wait for the right moment to get him. I don’t understand, why him? Why come after him? They had to be waiting for him.” The bartender later added that she heard a car speed away from the scene after the shots, and believed it may have been a drive-by shooting.

A friend and fellow rapper who goes by the name Chedda Boss said he was absolutely stunned by the news. “When I woke up and saw [on social media] ‘RIP,’ I’m like, no, not my man Frankie. And my first thought was, damn, I hope he didn’t pass away in a car accident,” he said. “I would never have thought he’d gotten shot, because that’s not the kind of life that he lived.”

Snyder was hosting a birthday party at the lounge on Saturday night before the fatal shooting, according to social media posts.

“HollywoodPlay & #straightMovin presents #BringYaFriendsSaturdays,” read a post on Snyder’s Instagram prior to the celebration.

Any more information on the motive or identity of the shooter is still unknown.