George Floyd’s Niece, 4, Shot While Sleeping in Houston Home on New Year's Day

Photo Credit: Floyd Family Handout 

George Floyd’s four-year-old great-niece is in stable condition after surviving a New Year’s Day gun attack on her family home.

Arianna Delane, the daughter of his niece, Bianca Williams, whose mother is George's sister, LaTonya — was hit in the torso when a hail of bullets was unleashed into her Houston apartment at around 2:50 a.m. Saturday.

Delane, who was one of four adults and two children at the home when the shooting occurred, was hit in the torso. Her father, Derrick Delane, told Houston’s ABC 13 that his daughter was asleep in the bed when she was shot.

This is 4-year-old Arianna. She was front and center at the marches and rallies in her Uncle George Floyd’s case.

On Saturday around 3 a.m., her father tells me she was asleep in her bed when someone fired several shots at their apartment. Arianna was hit in her torso. pic.twitter.com/Cpo1oFwase

— Mycah Hatfield (@MycahABC13) January 4, 2022

“My daughter jumped up and said she had been hit,” said Delane of Arianna, who suffered from a punctured liver, lung, and had several broken ribs because of the shooting. “I [saw] the blood, the bleeding, and I grabbed her.”

Arianna, along with her family, was front-and-center at several rallies and marches to call for justice for her uncle’s death. Former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds in May 2020, was convicted of murder in June 2021 and sentenced to over 20 years in prison.

The Houston Police Department said in a statement that there is no suspect description or motive in the shooting.

“The investigation into the senseless shooting of the 4-year-old female at 3322 Yellowstone Boulevard on Saturday morning (January 1) continues to move forward,” HPD Chief Troy Finner said. “I am aware and have concerns regarding the delayed response time in this incident and have initiated an Internal Affairs Investigation. I ask the city to continue to pray for the child’s full recovery and assist in providing information that would lead to the arrest of the suspect or suspects responsible.”

Traxamillion, Producer Who Helped Popularize Bay Area's Hyphy Sound, Dead at 42

Courtesy Prashant “PK” Kumar

Traxamillion, a prolific hip-hop producer and one of the pioneers of the Bay Area's hyphy hip-hop movement, is dead at 42.

According to his manager, Prashant “PK” Kumar, the artist, born Sultan Banks, died Sunday at his aunt's house in Santa Clara, California, where he was on hospice — ending a long battle with a rare form of cancer that began for him in 2017.

“He was an amazing musician/producer,” Kumar told the San Francisco Chronicle. “He was an integral part of the hyphy music sound who helped reopen the door for Bay Area hip-hop. He did it in 2004 or 2005, and the rest of California got on it and adapted his sound.”

Born in East Orange, New Jersey, and raised in San Jose, California, where he attended Andrew Hill High School in San Jose before moving on to San Jose City College to further his education; Banks was a force both behind-the-scenes and behind the mic in helping popularize hyphy music. 

Rest In Peace @traxamillion 🙏🕊️ The San Jose producer who helped create the "Hyphy" sound passed away today. This is a huge loss for Northern California 💔 We send our condolences to his family & loved ones. #RIPTraxamillion pic.twitter.com/I3k4NsUq5M

— Thizzler On The Roof (@TheThizzler) January 2, 2022

His production work with Oakland, California, rapper Keak da Sneak, who coined the term hyphy was its self-proclaimed king, on songs like "Super Hyphy" helped shape the genre's sound in the mid-2000s. While his biggest project, a compilation album released in 2006 featuring Banks and an all-star squad of hyphy rappers flowing over his beats, “Traxamillion Presents the Slapp Addict,” remains iconic in the Bay.

“That album is often referred to as the soundtrack of the hyphy movement,” Kumar said.

Banks, also worked with other prominent Bay Area rappers, including mainstream music icons, Too Short and E-40, the latter of whom shared a heartfelt tribute to him on Instagram following the news of his death.

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A post shared by E40 Mogul 🥂🎩 (@e40)

Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty of All But One Charge in Sex Trafficking Case

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Following six days of deliberations, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty Wednesday on all but one count in a sex trafficking trial that has gripped the nation.

The 60-year-old former companion of disgraced financier, and alleged rapist and pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted of conspiring with him for over a decade to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls by a federal jury in Manhattan.

Maxwell, who has been held without bail since her arrest in July 2020, faced six counts related to her role in aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls between 1994 and 2004.

The jury, comprised of six men and six women, found her guilty of conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors and sex trafficking of minors.

Maxwell, who was not found guilty of enticing a minor to travel across state lines to engage in illegal sex acts, faces up to 65 years in prison for her crimes.

"A unanimous jury has found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of one of the worst crimes imaginable -- facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement following the verdict. "I want to commend the bravery of the girls -- now grown women -- who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom. Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made this case, and today's result, possible."

"This Office will always stand with victims, will always follow the facts wherever they lead, and will always fight to ensure that no one, no matter how powerful and well connected, is above the law," Williams added.

Maxwell, the daughter of a British media mogul, plead not guilty to all the charges but could not escape the specter of her former companion, Epstein (66), who was found hanged in a jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by the New York City medical examiner.

Her defense team tried to separate her image from that of Epstein. They argued that the government’s case was based on flimsy evidence, and pointed to money as the motivation for the women that came forward to accuse her.

The prosecutors unfurled reams of evidence that the two were life partners for many decades and that Maxwell was active and took the lead in decisions related to the trafficking of women.

“Ms. Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” a prosecutor, Alison Moe, told the jury in closing arguments Monday. “She manipulated her victims and groomed them for sexual abuse.”