Tekashi 6ix9ine is scheduled to receive his sentencing on Wednesday morning (Dec. 18), following his guilty plea earlier this year to a number of charges accusing him of joining the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, a violent New York street gang.
On the eve of the sentencing, two victims from a April 3, 2018 armed robbery in midtown Manhattan submitted impact statements detailing how they’ve suffered since the attack. Tekashi previously testified that the incident was meant to be a revenge hit on Rap-A-Lot Records, but the two victims were publicists unrelated to the label in a case of mistaken identity.
The first victim, a 33-year-old African American male said in his statement received by Billboard that the attack “set my life on the wrong course, and destroyed the normal adulthood that I was striving for.”
“I am exmilitary and seen my share of violence but never have I been so scared as the cold, hard metallic gun was pressed against my abdomen,” he noted, before delving into the lasting impact of the attack.
“For a long time I practiced putting the terrible memories away in my mind,” he continued. “Thinking about it is still really painful. Sometimes I just go into staring spells when I am caught thinking about what happened and not paying any attention to my surroundings. Everyday of my life I live in constant fear that someone (his goons/supporters/constituents) will be sent to finish the job. It hurts me so much.”
His statement ends with: “Why should this person, who nearly ended my life, be free when I am not free?”
The other victim noted in her statement that “as a result of this entire ordeal, I have suffered greatly from mental anguish and emotional distress. So traumatized by this aftermath, that over a year later, I have had a difficult time getting past the incident suffering from what we believe is post-traumatic stress disorder.”
She also detailed the impact of “the video of me escaping from the clutches of his thugs on social media and it went viral accumulating millions of views as the public laughed.”
“Ever since, I find myself unable to do the simple things an adult should do,” she continued. “It’s easy for me to block out my feelings and avoid things that make me uncomfortable. I have emotional, mental and financial problems as this uncomfortable situation has left me displaced without work. I went as far as to leave Texas, hiding in the home of a close friend to avoid the watchful eyes of Tekashi69’s network.”
The impact statements come less than two weeks since Department of Justice attorneys filed a memo requesting Judge Paul Engelmayer, who is overseeing 6ix9ine’s case, impose a sentence below the statutory minimum.
The rapper is currently in federal custody and faces a maximum of life imprisonment, with a mandatory minimum sentence of 47 years’ imprisonment.