Nathaniel Glover, aka The Kidd Creole of the pioneering rap group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, told police he thinks he heard a gay slur before he stabbed a homeless convicted sex offender to death in Manhattan earlier this week, but the rap legend said he was wearing headphones so couldn't be sure, according to a senior law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
Glover, a 57-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, was arrested and charged with murder after being questioned at the 13th Precinct in Manhattan Wednesday. He had been taken into custody at his Bronx home earlier that day.
Glover confessed to stabbing the man, later identified as 55-year-old John Jolly. According to the senior law enforcement official, Glover told cops he thought he heard Jolly utter the slur, then the two got into each other's faces. The situation escalated and Glover ended up killing the man, the official said. The official said Glover admitted the argument just got out of hand, and police told News 4 earlier Thursday the rapper was "extremely remorseful" for what happened.
He is expected in court later Thursday. Attorney information wasn't immediately available.
Jolly was found with three stab wounds to his chest near Third Avenue and East 44th Street shortly before midnight on Tuesday, according to police. Cops say he may have been stabbed somewhere else before collapsing at the spot a couple of blocks from Grand Central Terminal.
He was taken to Bellevue Hospital and pronounced dead less than an hour later, police said. Jolly had been staying at a homeless shelter in the Bowery and had 17 prior arrests, officials said.
Glover has four prior arrests, the most recent being in 2007 for possession of a knife. In 1995 and 1982, he was arrested for possessing a gun, according to police. A fourth arrest is sealed. Glover worked security at a building on 44th Street near where the victim was found.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five formed in the Bronx in the late 1970s. They're most known for their influential 1982 rap song, "The Message." The group broke up in the late 1980s.
Photo Credit: NBC 4 New York