Captured Toronto rapper Top5 wanted revenge for brother's murder: U.S. Attorney

The Toronto rapper who was wanted for murder before he was arrested earlier this month in Los Angeles is a member of a criminal gang who organized a botched hit trying to target his brother's killer, according to documents unsealed in an American extradition hearing.

U.S. authorities say Top5, whose real name is Hassan Ali, is a member of something called the “Go Getem Gang”, and say that explains his alleged involvement in the shooting death of an innocent man, 20-year-old Hashim Omar Hashi, an accounting student gunned down outside his parking lot back in January.

“Ali is a member of a violent Canadian street gang. Canada has charged him with the cold-blooded murder of Hashim Hashi,” a filing by the U.S. Attorney’s office in the United States District Court for the Central District of California reads.

Hashi was murdered “because he happened to live in the rival gang’s turf," the filing says. He was mistaken for the person the shooters believed was the killer of Ali’s brother, Said Ali, known as “Foolish”, in 2017, the court filing says.

“Ali subsequently discussed killing people in retaliation for his brother’s death on public social media posts, including one less than three days before the murder,” the filing says, adding that Ali is not suspected of being the shooter, but being a passenger in the same vehicle.