A police officer who saved the life of a young Lil Wayne was honored Sunday night by the New Orleans music icon. “U refused to let me die,” the rap megastar wrote in the Instagram tribute. “RIP uncle Bob. Aunt Kathie been waiting for u. I’ll love & miss u both and live for us all.”
The Grammy-winner previously spoke with sincere respect about New Orleans Police officer Robert Hoobler who saved his life when he was 12 years old after a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest.
Hoobler’s intervention and help enabled him to set a future course for stardom.
In an interview with Emmanuel Acho back in 2021, Lil Wayne detailed exactly what transpired after his childhood suicide attempt using his mother’s gun.
Lil Wayne said he was laying on the floor bloodied from the gunshot wound as the police officers who busted through the door other than Uncle Bob, were only focused on raiding the home.
The rapper said Uncle Bob shifted the other officers’ focus away from the drugs in the house to helping Wayne survive. He said Uncle Bob picked him up and spoke to him encouragingly as he drove him to the hospital, urging him to hang on as he sought medical help.
During the interview, Wayne said when he met Bob years later, he told the rapper, “I’m happy to see that I saved a life that mattered.”
Watch below as Lil Wayne talks about the day his life was saved thanks to the intervention of a police officer:
Lil Wayne, whose full name is Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., later offered financial help to New Orleans Police officer Robert Hoobler.
Hoobler never revealed if he asked the rapper for his financial help, however he did mention to TMZ in later years there had been some talk of his joining Lil Wayne’s team in “some sort of administrative capacity.”