Hot 97 executive Paddy Duke has been fired after a new documentary alleged that he was part of a mob that killed a Black teen in the ’80s.
The HBO documentary titled Storm Over Brooklyn documented the brutal killing of Black teenager Yusef Hawkins by a mob of 30 white men armed with baseball bats. Duke was identified as being one of those 30 men (allegedly.)
“He told me that he got swept up in the Yusef Hawkins situation. He also told me he didn’t have nothing to do with it,” Hot 97’s Ebro said. “This was — had to have been more than 8-10 years ago. I didn’t know that he had a misdemeanor and I didn’t know that his record had been expunged.”
“Based on what I know about the NYPD,” Ebro continued. “Neighborhoods getting swept up around a murder that’s normal procedure especially in the late ’80s and ’90s. … And what am I going to say to a guy I work with? I don’t believe you?”
Duke was one of several arrested and charged but was acquitted for his part in the killing. He was convicted was convicted of three counts of unlawful imprisonment, four counts of menacing and criminal possession of a weapon. He was acquitted of four discrimination charges and remained free on $75,000 bail pending his April 23 sentencing.