CRIME

Wilmington rapper's mom sees killing as retaliation

Brittany Horn

The News Journal

Robert Teat, a well-known Wilmington rapper who went by the name Bobby Dimes, was nervous in the days before his death, as if he knew something bad was about to happen, according to his mother.

"He said the only way they're going to get me is if they sneak up on me," Trudy Boardley told The News Journal Wednesday through tears.

Her 31-year-old son was gunned down Monday night in the area of 22nd and Jefferson streets and died from his injuries Tuesday. Wilmington police said he was shot in the head, arms and legs.

On the night he was killed, Boardley had talked to her son on the phone as he walked to the store. She even offered to drive him because she was worried about him walking there, she said. He had been "clingy" in the weeks before his death, she said, always calling to check in with her and see where she was.

He never made it back from the store. Police released few details and no suspect information about his shooting.

Boardley is convinced his death was an act of retaliation.

Now, Boardley worries that more retaliation is likely to follow.

Robert Teat, better known as Bobby Dimes in the music world, was shot Monday night in Wilmington. He died the following day becoming the 21st person to die by gunfire in Delaware's largest city.

"The bullet that's intended for the person may not get that person," she said. "The last thing I want is to sit next to the mother of someone who was killed while trying to get back at someone."

Court documents show that Teat was arrested Nov. 2 and charged with shooting at a man in the 2200 block of N. Market St. in early October. Video surveillance obtained by Wilmington police show a man identified as Teat arguing by the Hometown Breakfast Restaurant on North Market Street, according to court documents.

As the argument continued, Teat drew a gun from his waistband and fired, shattering the rear driver's side window of a nearby vehicle but missing the unidentified man he fired at, according to court documents.

Teat's charges were pending trial and he was out on $60,000 bail on charges of reckless endangering, possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a felony and possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person due to a prior conviction on assault charges.

Boardley acknowledged and did not try to hide Teat's previous run-ins with the law.

Her son – who became well known throughout Delaware for his rapping – did most of his writing when he served a three-year sentence for assault in 2009 at what used to be Gander Hill Prison, now Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington. He was also wanted in connection to a shooting of a teenager in 2008 on Bennett Street and various other charges over the last decade.

Teat wasn't afraid to write about what he saw, knew and experienced, Boardley said. His lyrics talked about Wilmington's gun violence, drugs and prison, as well as his family.

A memorial for Wilmington rapper Bobby Dimes sits in the rain last month in the 2200 block of N. Jefferson St. in Wilmington. Dimes was shot to death Nov. 28.

After losing his oldest brother to gun violence, Teat was familiar with the effects bullets could have. Wednesday marked 13 years to the date from when Darryl Lively was killed at the age of 23 during an attempted robbery on "the notorious Bennett Street," Boardley said.

To lose two children to Wilmington's streets, she said, is unfathomable. She lived the pain in 2003, and now, she is living it again.

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"The city still believes it's OK," Boardley said through tears Wednesday. "Soon, there's not going to be enough funeral homes to keep up with the massive, massive amounts of gunshot victims."

Teat was supposed to call his mother when he got back to his house, she said. When the phone rang shortly after 8:40 p.m., she expected it to be Bobby. But instead, it was another family member, calling to let her know they heard Teat had been shot.

At the same time, Boardley's husband's phone began to ring. All confirmed the mother's worst fears.

Trudy Boardley has lost two sons to gun violence in Wilmington. On Monday, her son Bobby Teats, known in the music world as Bobby Dimes, was killed in the 2200 block of N. Jefferson St.

"We taught him to walk away, to march on," she said. "He was a soldier. He wouldn't hurt anyone unless he thought you were going to hurt him."

Many in the city were envious of Teat's talent as a rapper and his rise to local fame with the popular song, "Out Delaware," Boardley said. The song has been viewed more than 160,000 times on YouTube since it was posted in 2012 and a remix of the song gained another 50,000 after it posted in 2013.

"He was feared for his mouth and his mind," Boardley said. "He always told me that he was going to put Delaware on the map."

This earned him some enemies over the years, the mother admitted, but she believed her son was ready to emerge as a musician. A few weeks ago, he sent her a picture of himself in New York with actor and comedian Kevin Hart. Teat told her Hart asked him to open up for him some time, and Boardley said her heart swelled.

Some of Teat's lifestyle affected her, too. At times, she was fearful walking Wilmington's streets, she said. But now she fears for who killed her son.

An outpouring of community support began early Tuesday morning as news spread that Bobby Dimes was critically injured. When he died, hundreds took to Twitter and Facebook to post tributes, pictures and memories.

Friend and fellow rapper Kenneth Walker – better known as K. Walker – posted early Wednesday morning a music tribute to Teat, who he had been working with in the studio for about six months. The music video, titled "Bobby Dimes Tribute (Music Video)" on YouTube talked about the loss of Dimes in the community and music world, as well as the violence in the city.

The refrain talked about seeing Teat's face everywhere, as hundreds of friends and acquantinces posted about the rapper's death.

"I think the streets swallowed him tighter than they swallowed me," Walker said Wednesday. "When I got him to rap, he didn't realize me bringing him to the studio was me getting him off the streets and keeping him off the streets."

Nearly everyone mentioned his most popular song, "Out Delaware," which his mom said was his way of telling the world he was free and ready to begin his life again. As a father to seven children, he wanted to be a role model and someone worth looking up to for his kids, she said.

"He was a fighter," Boardley said. "He was loving, kind, caring. What you saw with him is what you got."

But with a "daredevil" child, she worried, too, she said.

"I always told him, don't get into something I can't get you out of," Boardley said.

A stuffed animal tied to a pole is part of a makeshift memorial for slain Wilmington rapper Bobby Dimes who was killed Monday night in the 2200 block of N. Jefferson St.

Despite what she did to try, including getting involved in a Stop the Violence Coalition after her oldest son was killed, the city stole two of her sons. The streets continue to win as more lives are lost, she said.

"Two boys lost to bullets," she said as tears rolled down her cheeks. "It's got to stop."

So far this year, 140 people have been injured in Wilmington shootings. Of those, 21 have died from their injuries.

But Bobby Dimes will live on, Boardley said, through his music and the people he impacted in Wilmington. He will also live on in the bodies of others – he was an organ donor, Boardley said.

As a double lung transplant recipient, Teat's mother said the gesture hits home. It was after her successful surgery that Teat pledged to do the same for others, so his lungs could one day help someone else breathe.

"That's going to be my solitude," she said. "That he left such an impact on the city. That's what I'm going to remember."

Contact Brittany Horn at (302) 324-2771 or bhorn@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter at @brittanyhorn.