It's been a dark couple of days for the loved ones of Hamilton rapper Omer Niaz Muhammad, otherwise known as Lil Ot. On Monday (February 9), the 24-year-old was shot in a Burlington parking lot after two gunmen opened fire.
The Hamilton Spectator reports that police found him in the parking lot bleeding, and he was promptly rushed to the hospital. Tragically, he did not survive the attack. Authorities believe he was targeted and that there's no threat to the public. They're currently searching for the two suspects, who fled the scene in a white SUV.
“Unfortunately, one young man lost his life,” Halton Regional Police Constable Jeff Dillion said during a press conference yesterday. “When you are in a wide open parking lot like this and a gun is fired, it was lucky that nobody else was struck. It shows a rampant disregard for anyone else who may have been here.”
This wasn't Lil Ot's first run-in with gun violence. In 2023, his family home was struck with approximately 52 bullets in a drive-by shooting. Six family members were home at the time of the incident, though nobody was injured.
Who Is Lil Ot?
Over two years later, Ahmed Issak-Hussan pleaded guilty to discharging a firearm with intent to endanger the life of unknown persons and possessing a firearm while prohibited. Issak-Hussan, who was once a friend of Lil Ot's, is still awaiting sentencing. In an interview posted by 6ix Entertainment last July, Lil Ot opened up about “young boys joining the streets," saying, “it’s not fun out here.”
At the time, he shared that he'd recently lost a “younger bro,” which changed him forever. “I don’t even laugh the same," he admitted. Later on in the interview, he was asked about the scariest day of his life.
“I don’t know. Like close-death experiences, near-death experiences, shootouts, getting shot at,” he shared. “I’ve never really been in like a crazy car accident, but a lot of shootouts though.”
Lil Ot was a rising artist with more than 27K followers on Instagram and 10K followers on Spotify. He's known for his projects Written In Stone, JamesVille, and more. The latter racked up upwards of 10 million streams.
