2nd suspect arrested in fatal shooting of Toronto rapper Smoke Dawg, brand manager Ernest Modekwe

A second suspect in the 2018 fatal shooting of Toronto rapper Jahvante Smart, known by his stage name Smoke Dawg, and brand manager Ernest Modekwe has been arrested in Alberta, police say.

RCMP said the 23-year-old man was apprehended Monday during routine traffic enforcement in the city of Airdrie, about 35 km north of Calgary.

Officers stopped a vehicle for speeding and illegally tinted windows and soon discovered what they believed to be "proceeds of crime," RCMP Const. Jennifer Weedmark said during a news conference Wednesday.

The man provided fake identification and eventually tried to run away on foot but was quickly caught by the officers, Weedmark said. He had a loaded handgun on him at the time, she said.

The officers soon learned the man was wanted by Toronto police on a Canada-wide arrest warrant for two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. RCMP declined to identify the suspect because he was a youth at the time of the 2018 slayings of Smart, 21, and Modekwe, 28, who was known in Toronto's hip hop community as Koba Prime.

The man, who was also charged with a host of firearms- and identity fraud-related offences in Alberta, was scheduled to appear in a court in Airdrie on Thursday. Toronto police said in an email they expect he will be transported to Ontario to face the murder charges, but it's not yet clear when that will happen.

Smart and Modekwe were gunned down on the evening of June 30 during Canada Day celebrations on Queen Street W. Smart suffered three gunshot wounds, one to his neck and two in his leg. Modekwe was shot once in the neck. A woman, who was a bystander and who was shot in the leg, survived.

In February 2022, Abdulkadir Handule was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder, aggravated assault and discharge of a firearm in connection with the shooting. He had been arrested three years earlier in Burnaby, B.C.