21-05-2025
Mother of Philly rapper LGP QUA prepares for public viewing, celebration of love
The Brief
Tamara Davis, the mother of slain Philly rapper, 30-year-old Qidere Johnson, also known as LGP QUA, is remembering her son as the "Voice of the Youth."
Surveillance video shows two of the three suspects police are looking for.
Family members are pleading for the shooters to turn themselves in.
PHILADELPHIA - The mom of 30-year-old Qidere Johnson, also known as LGP QUA, is speaking out after her son was fatally shot by multiple suspects who are being sought by police.
What we know
On Monday, the Philadelphia Police released a surveillance video of two suspects who they say were wearing masks when they shot Qua in an apparent robbery.
It happened on the 3900 block of M Street in Juniata Park just before 5 p.m. Sunday the evening of May 11, Mother's Day.
Police say the two got away in a black Nissan Altima driven by another person.
That car has since been found by the police.
What they're saying
"I'm still trying to process this," said Tamara Davis. It's been almost a week and a half since her son was taken from her on the day she should've been celebrating being a mom.
Davis says her only child left her house and never came back.
"I'm dealing with it the best I can because I'm still waiting to see my son walk up the street from Mother's Day," she said. This Thursday reality will begin to set in when she'll be allowed to view her son's body for the first time.
"As a mother it's hard. I spoke to God. I gotta let him go and I'm fighting with that," said Davis. Her son, 30-year-old Qidere Johnson is known to Philly and around the world as LGP Qua. He was a rapper but even deeper than that he was a poet, a storyteller and was known widely as The Voice of the Youth.
"My son was light. I knew he was gifted," said Davis. Qua rapped powerfully about the challenges and disparities of the city and its young people.
"Taking my son, they messed up," she said about the people who shot him to death.
Davis sat alongside Qua's two children.
"I miss him and I love him," said his 6-year-old son Shyair. His daughter Sanyi is 10 years old.
"We're going to miss that he was funny. His funniness," she said.
Keisha Washington is urging the suspects to turn themselves in.
"You running and trying to hide is not worth it. Ya'll took somebody special. Nobody deserves to die from gun violence," said Washington who is a cousin.
Davis has this to say to the youth who looked up to and supported her son.
"You don't have to be amongst the followers. Be a leader and I knew my son that's what he was," she said.
What's next
A public viewing will be held Friday, May 23, from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Batchelor Brothers & Jones Chapel at 7112 North Broad Street in Philadelphia.
The Service of Love will take place on Saturday, May 24 at the MET at 858 North Broad Street in Philadelphia.
The viewing is at 8 a.m. and the service is at 10 a.m.
The Source
The information in this story is from Philadelphia police and the vctim's mother.
