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Las Vegas Strip Shooting Update: Kenny Clutch, aspiring rapper, among dead in fatal attack

Kenneth Cherry Jr. Facebook

(CBS/AP) LAS VEGAS - Aspiring rapper Kenneth Cherry Jr., also known as Kenny Clutch, was one of three people killed in a deadly car-to-car shooting in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip Thursday morning.

Pictures: Aspiring rapper killed in Las Vegas Strip shooting

Cherry was driving a Maserati when a Range Rover pulled up and began shooting into the car, CBS Las Vegas reports. Cherry was killed and his passenger was injured. Two others were killed when Cherry's Maserati ran a red light and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames.

The shooting occurred at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, the site of several major hotel-casinos and about a block away from where rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996 under similar circumstances.

"This is something you never want to go through," Cherry's father, Kenneth Cherry Sr., told KNTV. "This is the hardest thing in my life right now because you never want your children to leave before you leave."

According to his Facebook page, Cherry is from Oakland, Calif. and lived in Las Vegas.

Police said previously that they believe the violence was prompted by an earlier altercation at a hotel. Authorities are still searching for the Range Rover believed to be involved in the shooting.

Complete coverage of the Las Vegas Shooting on Crimesider

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