Lil Wayne is mourning the death of former New Orleans police officer Robert Hoobler, whom he endearingly referred to as “Uncle Bob” after he saved the rapper’s life following his suicide attempt at age 12.
“Everything happens for a reason. I was dying when I met u at this very spot. U refused to let me die,” Wayne wrote via Instagram on Monday (July 25) beneath a photo of Hoobler. “Everything that doesn’t happen, doesn’t happen for a reason. That reason being you and faith. RIP uncle Bob. Aunt Kathie been waiting for u. I’ll love & miss u both and live for us all.”
According to The New Orleans Advocate, Hoobler was found dead in his Old Jefferson, La., home. He was 65. His grandson Daniel Nelson said that he suffered from lingering health issues stemming from a car accident and struggled with diabetes, which eventually led to both of his legs being amputated. David Lapene, Hoobler’s former colleague, said Lil Wayne’s story of Hoobler saving his life nearly 30 years ago is “one of the best stories that depicts Hoobler as a person.”
Last August, the rapper, now 39, sat down with Emmanuel Acho, former NFL player and author of Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, to discuss his mental health struggles and open up about his suicide attempt at such a young age. On Nov. 11, 1994, the Young Money MC (real name Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.) had called the police before finding his mother’s gun in her bedroom and putting it to his head. After he had shot himself in the chest and heard the cops pounding on the front door, Wayne described how the blood pouring out of chest made it easy for him to slide his body across the floor before kicking the door to signal to the officers that someone was inside.
“They saw me — they as in the cops — they just jumped clean over me and went through the house, talking about, ‘I found the drugs! I found the gun!’ 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,” said Weezy of Hoobler, who was off-duty at the time and arrived at Wayne’s apartment after he heard the dispatcher on his police radio say there was a boy suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. “One of them yelled, ‘I got the drugs!’ And that’s when he went crazy. He was like, ‘I don’t give a f— about no drugs! Do you not see the baby on the ground?!’ … He’s screaming at ’em, and they all came out the other room like, ‘Oh sorry, boss. We called the ambulance.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t give a f—!’ So he called one of their names [and said] ‘Your car, now!’ Picked me up and just kept telling me some sh– like, ‘You’re not gonna die on me, you’re not gonna die on me.’ … And so he got me to the hospital, he brought me there and made sure I was good.”
Wayne continued: “I met him years later. But he was like, ‘I don’t want nothing. I just want to say I’m happy to see that I saved a life that mattered.’”
Read Weezy’s sentimental post below.
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If you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts and/or distress, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.
