Rapper T.I. Arrested in Bizarre Case of Mistaken Identity
The rapper evidently shares a name with an alleged stalker.
Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Rapper T.I., whose real name is Clifford Harris, was arrested on Sunday night as authorities nabbed the wrong guy.
According to TMZ, T.I. was at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport when his name was flagged as an alleged stalker who’d threatened a woman with a gun. Though the wanted Clifford’s description included a weight of 205 pounds and the rapper is smaller, around 165 pounds, the identical name alone landed him in custody.
Though the police had the wrong guy, T.I. had previously been arrested in 2009 and served seven months in prison for federal gun charges. He served another 10 months the following year for drug charges, which violated his probation at the time. Since his run-ins with the law, the rapper has steered clear of further legal trouble until the Sunday mishap.
As the warrant for the crime was issued in another state, the rapper was subject to an automatic extradition hearing after he was transported from the airport to Clayton County Jail. T.I.’s lawyer told TMZ he had the rapper released within two hours of the erroneous arrest. The extradition hearing was also thrown out.
While discussing backlash for his past political statements earlier this year, like his 2018 music video that featured a Melania Trump lookalike stripping in the Oval Office (Melania called for a boycott of the rapper at the time), T.I. said he’s focusing on family and staying out of politics. “At this point, I just want to live my life, continue to raise my children, do the best I can for me and my family,” he said in an interview on The Breakfast Club. “I’m not tripping if y’all want to do whatever politically.”
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