Khago Charged For Threatening Relative With Gun After Verbal Dispute

Tun Up the Ting artist Khago has been charged with assault at common law, after he allegedly pointed his gun at a relative following a verbal dispute at his home in Knockpatrick, Manchester, last Friday.

This is the second firearm incident involving Khago, whose real name is Ricardo Gayle, that has caught the Firearm Licensing Authority’s (FLA) attention.

“There was already an open case open involving Khago and we are now investigating  a second case,” the FLA’s Corporate and Client Relations director Beverly Robinson told DancehallMag.

“If we find that the complaint is credible, then we don’t have to wait for the outcome of the police criminal investigations or even wait on the resulting court decision, we can revoke the gun licence of the individual involved.”

Robinson said that the FLA will soon act on the results of its investigations.

“We will wrap up our investigations and submit a report to the board for a final decision on the future of his licence,” Robinson said.

According to the police, Khago allegedly pointed the weapon at a female who lives in his household and issued a threat during a heated verbal exchange between the two.

The female relative, who made a report to the Mandeville police, told the Jamaica Star that the incident has left her traumatized.

“Mi trouble with both depression and anxiety so this situation only make things worse for me. It was a really bad thing to go through, mi a tell yuh, because mi get so scared when him point the gun at me. Mi tun fool and no know wah fi do. Him say to me, ‘Hey gal, yuh better come out a mi house right now, enuh’, and as soon as him lower him hand wid di gun mi dash out of the room and run go round weh him fren dem deh inside the studio,” she said.

According to the relative, the dispute stemmed from a situation she was trying to explain to Khago involving his girlfriend.

“He was saying earlier that the dust had sickened his child and I was explaining to him that the young lady was walking in the house with her slippers from the outside and that could contribute to it. Same time him jump up and start say, ‘yuh know mi no need yuh fi tell mi how fi run mi house. Yuh have people here weh bring mi happiness and yuh nah go come tek dat from me’,” she recounted.

“I turned to him and said that him must learn fi listen and that is when him start gwaan and class mi di most way,” the relative said.

A court date has not yet been finalized for him to answer the charges of assault at common law.

The FLA has always maintained that they have the authority to remove a firearm from an individual before an actual incident takes place, “if the FLA believes that the person has the propensity based on the actions of the individual”.

Over the years, several entertainers have lost their license to carry firearms. And in recent months, several artists have been paraded through the courts on illegal firearm charges. 

Last year, reggae singer Jah Cure was among 200 Jamaicans previously found not “fit and proper” to be a licensed firearm holder, but who were granted permits anyway. In a press conference last year, Shane Dalling, the chief executive officer of the FLA, identified the Prison Walls singer as one applicant with criminal convictions or adverse traces, who were granted firearm licenses between 2014 and 2017.

Dalling revealed to journalists that Cure was found not “fit and proper” to be a license holder shortly after he was released from prison in 2015 on rape and illegal possession of firearm convictions.

But then weeks later, the permit was signed and approved.

The license was subsequently revoked.

Jah Cure, who was previously convicted for rape and illegal possession of a firearm in Jamaica, is currently serving a sentence for attempted murder, attempted manslaughter, aggravated assault, or attempted aggravated assault in the Netherlands.

In July 2021, selector Tony Matterhorn was also investigated by FLA authorities after making threats online.

Reports are that the weapon was confiscated after the popular selector, whose real name is Dufton Anthony Taylor, was accused of making serious threats against Bounty Killer, with whom he has a decades-old feud, on social media.

Section 29 of the Firearms Act which clearly sets out governing rules of behaviour expected of a licensed firearm holder. 

“Section 29 speaks to the considerations of being granted a licence to carry a firearm, specifically temperament and mental fitness,” the FLA has said in previous interviews.