Detroit rapper Skilla Baby says he's being targeted by city cop, threatens lawsuit

Detroit rapper Skilla Baby is threatening to sue the Detroit Police Department and city, saying he’s being harassed by a ranking officer who has sabotaged his concerts and at least once tried to prevent him from entering an event without cause.

The 25-year-old rapper, whose given name is Trevon Gardner, made the statement in a widely shared social media video after his manager says his Saturday night concert at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre was cut short. 

“Every time I perform at home, fire marshals or Detroit police always come shut me down,” Skilla Baby said on Instagram, where he has more than a million followers. “I don’t even know what I be doing, but they always come shut me down. And they got one officer that just always pick on me, his name is Lieutenant Rue … every time Lt. Rue at an event I always get shut down.

“The next thing I’ma do is sue the city,” he went on. “I'm gonna sue the DPD for keep putting him at my events … so city tell Lt. Rue to leave me alone.”

In a statement to the Free Press issued after publication, the department said it had reviewed the allegations made in the video.

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"We deny any suggestion of wrongdoing toward the performer or his events. While several of Skilla Baby’s concerts have been cancelled, this has been due to the performer failing to follow city protocols and for failing to obtain venues with the appropriate capacity," the statement said.

In a subsequent Instagram post, Skilla Baby indicates he’s speaking of Lt. Lacell Rue, who was criminally charged with assault as a sergeant in 2019 for allegedly stun-gunning a man in the Greektown Casino parking garage when the man did not pose a threat. Internal department records previously obtained by local media outlet Deadline Detroit show that, as of 2020, investigators with department internal affairs or those handling citizen complaints found Rue had violated policy at least 17 times since graduating from the academy in 2004 and that the then-sergeant rarely faced discipline.

The department promoted him to lieutenant in 2022, it said.

Skilla Baby's manager D-Juan Wiggins, also known as Eastside Juan, told the Free Press the Detroit fire marshal said it shut down Saturday’s concert because there were too many people on stage.

Erica Banks, marketing director with the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, said Tuesday that the show was neither halted nor stalled, citing a show promoter.

The purported incident follows what Wiggins and Skilla Baby said was the forced relocation and eventual shutdown of a separate concert to coincide with the rapper’s birthday last fall.

The all-ages Sept. 30 event had been slated for the Masonic Temple, but, Wiggins says, “Rue went up there and said we was gang members and we kill and shoot people and it wouldn’t be a good idea to have this event.

“We don’t do none of that,” he added.

In a statement to Metro Times at the time, the department said the cancellation was the venue’s decision, adding, “At no time did the DPD encourage or even suggest the event should be canceled.” A representative with the production company putting on the event told the publication: “If that’s the statement (DPD) gave, we’re going to stick to that. … I don’t want to contradict the Detroit Police.”

The event was moved to Riverside Marina, which Skilla Baby said in his Saturday post cost an additional $120,000 in rental, production and security fees. Despite the change, the event was shut down just a few songs into the rapper's set. Detroit Fire Department Chief James Harris reportedly blamed a lack of proper permit, security and onsite emergency medical staff. Wiggins says a subsequent afterparty was shut down as well.

While Wiggins said the shutdowns have involved the fire marshal, Rue is often present when they occur. Wiggins believes he's driving them because he's a "bully" with a personal vendetta against the artist.

He says the rapper had 14 people onstage with him Saturday, but there were about 50 people onstage with the act before him and that performance was not shut down. Wiggins added that he felt concerns about violence at the rapper’s shows were unwarranted because he tends to draw more female attendees than male. 

“It’s just Detroit,” Wiggins said. “We don’t have no other problems nowhere else.”

In his Instagram post, Skilla Baby also recounted an incident in which he said Rue tried to prevent him from entering a youth football event at Ford Field, saying the rapper was a gang member. Skilla Baby said he'd gone to support a younger cousin who was playing.

“Rue he crazy, I’m scared to get pulled over by that man for real,” he said. “I think he gonna do something to me.”

The Free Press was unable to immediately reach Rue at phone numbers and a social media account associated with his name. Rue’s union, the Detroit Police Lieutenants & Sergeants Association, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

Rue was charged with assault after a July 2018 Greektown incident in which Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy alleged that he used a Taser on a man “who was not aggressive and was holding his hands up,” according to a statement released around that time. Another sergeant was also charged for allegedly striking and punching the man while he was on the ground. The sergeants' union and police chief at the time said they had been overcharged.

The case was dismissed in November 2022 after the prosecutor's office says 3rd Circuit Judge Wanda Evans granted "a plea under advisement."

In a separate 2018 Greektown incident, a suburban man filed a citizen complaint against Rue alleging the then-sergeant had wrongly detained him in a squad car, then dropped him off elsewhere downtown and told him to figure out a way home, the internal records obtained by Deadline Detroit show. “I’ve done this before,” the man said Rue told him. “Next time I'm going to have a black van pull up, put you in it, and beat your ass.” 

Though investigators found Rue had committed misconduct, department higher-ups dismissed the charge at an appeal hearing. 

Of Rue’s 17 findings of wrongdoing by 2020, department disciplinary records show only five were upheld, and only three resulted in discipline, the worst of which was a one-day suspension. The remainder were dismissed at closed-door appeal hearings or because the investigations took longer to conclude than union contract rules allow. 

The more recent policy violations, since 2015, were for alleged rudeness or wrongful detention. In several incidents, investigators found that Rue had also not activated his body-worn camera, against department policy.

In his Instagram post, Skilla Baby said he felt he was being treated unfairly by a city to which he has given back.

“I do gun buybacks, I do meet-and-greets, I do free concerts at home, I buy shoes for the kids, I do back-to-school events, I do toy giveaways, toy drives," he said. "I just pour into my city … and they don’t respect me for it.” 

CBS Detroit covered one such meet-and-greet on Saturday. Hundreds reportedly came out to the event in northwest Detroit, where Skilla Baby is from.