American rapper, Lil Wayne has paid tribute to Robert Hoobler, a former New Orleans police officer who kept the rapper’s life following a suicide attempt when he was a child.
The five-time Grammy Award winner, 39, took to Instagram to pen some heartfelt words about Robert “Uncle Bob” Hoobler, who rushed to his aid after a childhood suicide attempt in 1994.
“Everything happens for a reason. I was dying when I met u at this very spot,” the rapper wrote alongside an image of Hoobler. “U refused to let me die. Everything that doesn’t happen, doesn’t happen for a reason.”
“That reason is you and faith. RIP Uncle Bob. Aunt Kathie has been waiting for u. I’ll love & miss u both and live for us all,” he expanded.
Hoobler, 65, was found dead at his Louisiana home on Friday, Nola.com reports. Hoobler’s grandson, Daniel Nelson, told the outlet he recently had both legs amputated and was diabetic.
In an interview with former NFL star Emmanuel Acho last year, the rapper touched briefly on his suicide attempt at the age of 12.
He called the police before taking his mother’s gun from her bedroom and shooting himself in the chest.
Police arrived on the scene but ignored his cry for help. Instead, they concentrated on the gun and drugs found in the room.
One only officer, Hoobler — who was off-duty at the time — heard a dispatch on his police radio, and rushed over to the house to assist Wayne.
“It took a guy named Uncle Bob, he ran up there, and when he got to the top of the steps and saw me there. He refused to even step over me,” the rapper said. “One of them yelled, ‘I got the drugs,’ and that’s when he went crazy. He was like, ‘I don’t give a fuck about no drugs! Do you not see the baby on the ground?!’”
The pair kept in close contact ever since. During the global protests against police brutality in 2020, the rapper opened up about his perspective on cops, saying Hoobler completely changed his opinion.
“My life was saved by a white cop. Uncle Bob,” he said during an episode of his Apple Music’s Beats 1 show. “Therefore, you have to understand the way I view police, period.”
