Rapper Lil Baby was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday, Aug. 26 for alleged possession of illegal weapons. According to a report by TMZ, police say that Lil Baby – whose real name is Dominique Jones – was seen on video accepting a gun from someone else and hiding it on his person. Police say he still had the gun on him when they investigated so he was arrested on the spot, then booked at Clark County Detention Center.
Jones was at a club called Encore in Vegas where video footage reportedly shows someone passing a gun to him. Police have not released this footage or made an official statement on this arrest. However, insiders said that Jones was booked at the local jail and held on $5,000 bond. His lawyers gave a statement to TMZ a few hours after their report went live.
"To be clear, Dominique Jones has a valid Georgia Carrying a Concealed Weapon (CCW) Permit," they said. "On his behalf we are actively investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding his arrest in Las Vegas." It's worth noting that Nevada does not recognize CCW permits issued in Georgia.
While the footage that got Jones arrested has not been published, TMZ obtained footage of his arrest, which shows him angrily berating the police. After threatening to sue them and get them fired, he began taunting them that they needed to strip search him to check for further concealed weapons.
Jones reportedly posted his bail eventually, but it's not clear what comes next in this case. Jones has told interviewers that he dropped out of school to sell drugs, and his lyrics often allude to a criminal lifestyle. He has been arrested for possession of cannabis in the past, but never for a violent crime or even weapon possession. Most recently, he was arrested in France while attending Paris Fashion Week in 2021 for possession of cannabis, which is illegal there.
Jones served two years behind bars over a 2014 arrest for possession of marijuana with intent to sell. His career took off from there, as did his family life with the birth of two children. In 2019, he was arrested for reckless driving in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The rapper has not spoken out publicly on his latest arrest, and his Instagram account has either been closed or suspended at the time of this writing.