Julio Foolio’s mother blames rap for his death: “We will ensure justice”

Sandrikas Mays vividly remembers the early hours of June 23, when she received the call that her son, Charles Jones, was dead.

“I got a call at 4 a.m.,” Mays said. “I was already awake because I had talked to him maybe at 12 or 1 a.m. when he texted me. And when I got the call from one of his close friends telling me there had been a shooting, I was like, ‘Okay, I have to get there. What happened? Where is that?'”

The friend told Mays that all of the victims, including her son, also known as drill rapper Julio Foolio, were taken to a hospital. Mays said she wasn’t worried yet, but never expected what happened next.

“I just thought, ‘Okay, everything’s OK,’ because he had been shot a couple of times,” Mays said. “I never thought he would ever die from a shooting, even though he had been shot so many times. When I went to pick up his aunt, another friend called me and told me the bad news. And I just couldn’t take it.”

Jones was shot in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Tampa North while celebrating his 26th birthday. Three other people were injured in the shooting.

Mays spoke with Newsweek about her son’s life, career and tragic death. She said Jones started rapping when she was eight years old.

“I have been very supportive of his rap career, even his Mother’s Day performance at my work at a nursing home,” Mays said.

She helped him build his career when he was still at the beginning of his career.

“I sent Charles when he was about 16 or 17 on a Megabus to Atlanta to do an interview with DJ Smallz Eyes,” Mays said. “And I took him and his friend to Atlanta a lot to hand out CDs and stuff like that. So I was very hands-on, very active in his career, keeping him out of trouble and doing what he wanted to do, what he loved.”

Mays often advised her son on important decisions.

“Everything went through me. No matter what decision was made or what record company contacted him, he always contacted me and asked, ‘Hey, can you take a look at this?'” Mays said.

As much as Mays supported her son, she acknowledged that the rap led to numerous attacks on her son and herself.

“We have to understand that Charles was not shot because he killed anyone, robbed anyone or anything like that,” Mays said. “That didn’t happen. All of this happened because of rapping.”

After being shot eight times at close range, Mays told her son to stop rapping.

“I told him, ‘That’s your rapping. You have to stop it,'” Mays said.

Jones was angry about the attack, but he refused to give up on his dream.

“He was mad, he was upset, and of course he wrote a song about it,” Mays said.

Although the two had a close relationship, Mays stated that there were times when she did not approve of her son’s actions.

“This has been going on for over a decade now, and I’ve talked to him about it, but these kids do what they want,” Mays said. “You can’t tell them what to do. Even as an adult, you can’t. He listens to some of the things I say, but he did what he wanted.”

Beyond his career, Mays hopes her son is remembered for the way he gave back and helped others. He often donated money to individuals and organizations in his community and spoke to children at local schools, Mays said.

“I want Charles to be remembered as a human being and not just a street dog or something like that, because he did some good things for the community. He touched a lot of people’s lives,” Mays said. “I’ve had thousands of messages, good messages, all from people from Africa, Russia and the UK telling me that his music helped them cope with a lot of things.”

In a recent Instagram post, Mays teased an upcoming documentary that will tell the story of Jones’ life. She says fans can expect to see the film in September.

“It’s about his life, how he grew up, his rap career, how it started, his family,” Mays said. “Charles grew up in church. He was always with his grandmother, who is also deceased, on his father’s side. So we’re going to highlight some of the good things. We’re going to highlight things that happened that people don’t know about.”

Although no suspects have been arrested in connection with Jones’ death, Mays said officials are working hard to solve the case.

“The FBI detectives in Tampa are working every day. They’re getting good leads and stuff like that,” Mays said. “Of course I want justice for him, and we’re going to get justice for him. I know we’re going to get justice for Charles. They’ve been working day in and day out since I got to the scene.”

She hopes her son’s death can make a difference in the violence that surrounds the industry.

“I just want everyone in this drill scene to change because it’s never going to get better,” Mays said. “It’s never going to get good because you have the commentators and blogs that fuel it. They fuel it and unfortunately, things like this are the end result.”

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