A flier featuring Joshua Judd solicits people for the making of the Gangstas & Thugs DVDs. Police said the fliers were an invitation for people to fight for the cameras.
Joshua Judd whose face once adorned the cover of the locally popular Gangstas & Thugs DVDs was found shot dead Thursday night in a car outside his home in Riviera Beach.Judd, 21, had been a suspect in at least one homicide and a long list of shootings and robberies, police said. He had been shot at least twice before, including a week before his death. He shrugged off tips from detectives to hide from retaliatory attacks. His aunt routinely called police pleading for them to save him before it was too late.Detectives who dealt with him for years saw a grim irony in the ambush-style death of a man who adorned the cover of a series of DVDs criticized for promoting violence."He knew he was going to get killed, and so did everyone else," West Palm Beach police Lt. Chuck Reed said. "It's fair to say he was one of the most violent guys in the city."You might not know it from his demeanor. In an interview with The Palm Beach Post last year he was soft-spoken and bashful, avoiding eye contact as he hid behind a curtain of moppy dreadlocks. He talked then of being an aspiring rapper and a father to his young daughter. He referred to a reporter as "Miss." He said he feared dying.But on the street his notoriety loomed larger than his lanky frame. Police called him a drug dealer and member of the violent Ace Click street gang.Investigators believe he was involved in the murder of Michael Jefferson, 26, on a West Palm Beach corner in 2004, and they suspect he had a role in several other shootings over the years.Detectives say they sometimes warned Judd after an attack that his enemies may come looking for him. But they were met with indifference."Many times I've gone out on the street to give him a heads-up," West Palm Beach police Detective Brian Arlotta said. "And he didn't care."
Judd's involvement in the Gangstas & Thugs DVDs raised his profile and drew the ire of police. In a parody recorded on one of the DVDs, he beats a masked "police officer" before going through his pockets and encouraging friends to steal the patrol car.He later complained that during subsequent arrests he was beaten by officers. In September 2007, West Palm Beach filed a civil injunction ordering him and other alleged members of the Ace Click gang not to hang out or congregate together.Since then, records show, he was arrested three times in Florida. All told, he was arrested 26 times as an adult.Authorities have made no arrests in his death.
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