Two members of a Wu-Tang Clan-affiliated hip-hop group were fatally shot in Northeast Portland on Tuesday, police confirmed.
Relatives on social media identified the rap music artists killed as 12 O’Clock and Murdock of the Brooklyn Zu.
Portland police on Wednesday identified the men as cousins Odion Turner, 50, known as 12 O’Clock, and David Turner, 45, who was Murdock.
The shooting occurred at 5:30 a.m. Tuesday in the area of Northeast 82nd Avenue and Milton Street.
The men were killed and four others wounded in the shooting, including one person who remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said. That person arrived to a hospital by private vehicle.
In a video posted on Instagram from a plane, Divine Turner said his father, 12 O’Clock, had been killed.
“So I’m out of town away from home on business and I get the call that they murdered my father,” Turner said. “I don’t know what to do.”
A caption on the video said, “It’s a sad day for me...They assassinated my father in #Oregon.’'
Young Dirty Bastard, the son of the late Wu-Tang rap legend Ol’ Dirty Bastard, wrote in an Instagram post Tuesday: “Rip 12 O’Clock. Rip Murdock. They Were My Fathers Tightest blood bonds. My Two Older cousins Was just assassinated. Love Yalll. Blood Forever. Brooklyn Zu.”
Princhesca Rainier Turner, Odion Turner’s wife of more than 20 years who lives in Florida, said her husband was living in Portland where he has many family members. The same day he was shot and killed, their oldest daughter had a baby, she said.
“August 10, 2021 How could one day bring so much joy and so much pain?” she wrote on a social media website. “My heart doesn’t know how to separate being empty and full at the same time.”
Other relatives said the cousins grew up in Brooklyn, New York, but moved to Oregon many years ago. Portland became their home base as the two cousins toured and performed.
Police have released few details of the circumstances of the shooting. A home surveillance video provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive captured nearly 20 gunshots ringing out in the street and a car speeding away west on Milton Street toward 82nd Avenue in the early morning darkness.
Stephon Turner, who also goes by “Raison Allah” and “Zookeeper,” said Odion Turner was his older brother, and David Turner was his cousin.
He described his brother as an “an artist, a father and husband.”
“My aunt called me up, and she let me know my brother and my cousin is dead, and I couldn’t believe it. I’m devastated. It hasn’t hit me yet,” Stephon Turner said. “The whole world is missing them right now. It’s a tragedy.”
Odion Turner and his cousin David Turner - 12 O’Clock and Murdock - were in a tan-colored RV trailer with Odion’s younger brother that was parked in a lot off Northeast 82nd Avenue when someone knocked on the front door and asked for a cigarette, according to Stephon Turner. Murdock reportedly opened the door and the stranger fired multiple shots at 12 O’Clock and Murdock, he said. Odion Turner’s younger brother was in the back of the trailer and hit the floor, he said.
Stephon Turner said he believes the double killing was motivated by “jealousy, lust, hate and greed.”
Stephon Turner said he used to go on tour with 12 O’Clock and Murdock and open shows for Ol’ Dirty Bastard, but they haven’t done a new album in almost 10 years. He said he spoke to his brother and cousin last Friday, and they were hopeful about working on a new album and going on tour again.
Left to right: Odion Turner, known as 12 O'Clock; Stephon Turner, known as Raison Allah in middle; and David Turner, known as Murdock.
The Northeast Portland area where shots rang out early Tuesday was quiet Wednesday afternoon, but a trail of blood leading from a bullet-riddled minivan into a nearby home was the only calling card of the deadly violence from the morning before.
A memorial with photos, notes, balloons and torches was also set up on 82nd Avenue.
The cousins’ deaths marked the 57th and 58th homicides this year in Portland, according to police. The homicide count eight months into the year has surpassed the total number in Portland for all of 2020. Last year, Portland recorded its highest number of homicides in over a quarter-century.
“It’s just unfortunate, especially that happening, coming the day before national Hip Hop day. Today was the birth of hip hop 48 years ago,” said O.G. One, the DJ for the Trail Blazers and co-founder of Hip Hop Day in Portland.
Brooklyn Zu made its debut featuring on an Ol’ Dirty Bastard record from 1995, according to the music publication Hot New Hip Hop. XXL magazine reported in 2008 that the group consisted of Ol’ Dirty Bastard, or Russell Jones, and four of the artist’s younger family members, including the two Turner cousins.
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
Jack Forrest of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.