Horace Pinnock, better known as DJ Village, was twenty-nine years old and lived in London, England. He hosted a popular reggae program on BBC’s Radio 1 called Dancehall Reggae and was considered a rising star, one of the pre-eminent reggae DJs in the country.
On the evening of Monday, November 19th, 2001, he and several friends had just attended a live show at Ocean in East London by O’Neil Bryan, who was the number one recording artist in Jamaica under the stage name Elephant Man and had been touring the UK.
After the concert, Horace drove his blue Ford Galaxy to the Plaza Hotel in Wembley, where Elephant Man was staying, accompanied by his friends, three men and two women.
While Horace was parking his vehicle shortly after midnight on November 20th, though, the group was confronted by two armed men who demanded all their money and valuables. Horace handed over the cash from the Elephant Man gig, which amounted to around £10,000 in US dollars, and everyone gave up their jewelry. The perpetrators then apparently fled the scene.
Horace and the others went into the Plaza Hotel and reported the robbery to the staff, and that seemed to be the end of it. Two hours later, though, Horace and his companions were involved in an altercation with a group of between six and ten men who had evidently met them in the hotel lobby. Suddenly, one of the men pulled out a handgun and shot Horace in the chest in front of multiple witnesses. Horace was quickly transported to Central Middlesex Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
It wasn’t clear whether the earlier robbery was connected to the later shooting, but authorities thought it probable. Horace’s murder was also investigated as part of Operation Trident, which was previously discussed in the context of the Michael Cabey murder in early August of the same year.
A couple of other criminal incidents were associated with Radio 1 DJs, particularly as the station became more known for featuring hip hop, reggae, and other so-called “street” music. DJ Mikee B, for example, who hosted a Sunday morning show on the platform, had spent more than a year in prison for drug dealing, and Tim Westwood, who hosted The Rap Show and was a friend of Horace’s, was shot in the arm in a drive-by in south London in 1999.
The reggae community in particular was shocked and saddened by Horace Pinnock’s slaying, and though authorities worked diligently to try and find the person responsible for the shooting, the crime is unresolved nearly a quarter century after it occurred.
Crime Immemorial 