According to reports, Ricky Hawk, better known by his stage name Silentó and best known for the 2015 hit song “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” has started serving a 30-year prison sentence after entering a guilty but mentally ill plea to charges related to the shooting death of his 34-year-old cousin, Frederick Rooks III, in January 2021. 

On January 21 of that year, DeKalb County Police discovered Rooks outside a residence with multiple gunshot wounds during an early-morning response. At the scene, he was declared dead. Security camera footage showed a white BMW SUV leaving at high speed shortly after the shooting, and authorities found about 10 bullet casings nearby. 

Afterwards, investigators recognized Hawk as the BMW's driver and verified his presence at the scene using GPS and video. After being taken into custody in 2021, Hawk confessed to the shooting a short time later. The casings were matched by ballistics testing to a firearm that was discovered in his possession.

Hawk entered a guilty, but mentally ill, plea to voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during a crime, and concealing a death when he appeared in DeKalb County Superior Court in 2025. 

Hawk's continued mental health issues were highlighted in his defense. 

According to reports, the rapper had previously been arrested in DeKalb County in 2020 after he was accused of driving 143 mph on Interstate 85. That same year, he was also accused of trying to hit two people with a hatchet in their home in LA.

Once a rising star, Silentó was the junior in high school in Atlanta who started a dance craze that peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100. He is now starting a decades-long prison sentence that will end in 2051.