Chinx’s 2015 murder devastated the family, friends and fans of a Far Rockaway rapper on his way to music superstardom, leaving countless questions unanswered. After an investigation that spanned more than two years, police arrested two suspects yesterday (Dec. 14) and have settled on a motive, claiming the killing stems from a conflict that dates back nearly a decade, an NYPD official tells XXL exclusively.

According to Lt. Richard Rudolph, Commanding Officer of the Queens South Homicide Squad, Quincy Homere, 32, and Jamar Hill, 26, “hunted” and killed the budding rap star due to a clash that took place while Chinx (born Lionel Pickens Jr.) was incarcerated. According to Rudolph, Chinx and Homere—an aspiring rapper himself who went by the name Qwality—fought each other on Sept. 27, 2009, while both were housed on Rikers Island.

“We're not exactly sure what the fight was about but our perpetrator Quincy probably got the worst of it and he wanted to get back at Chinx,” Rudolph tells XXL. Chinx had previously served more than three years in jail on robbery and drug charges from June 2005 to October 2008, but was taken back into custody shortly thereafter due to a parole violation. “When he saw Chinx's career starting to blow, he took it real personal and figured that his [own] career was going south... It just festered inside of him.”

Rudolph says the feud picked up again years later, when Homere showed up at a Chinx performance at SoundGarden Hall in Philadelphia on April 24, 2015, a night when French Montana, Uncle Murda and Neef Buck were all slated to hold court. There, the two men were involved in a verbal altercation. “[Quincy] was blacklisted from the other rap stars,” Rudolph said. “Quincy's steaming since that concert... I think that's when he started to feel a fire inside of him to take his revenge out on Chinx.”

Less than one month later, Homere and his friend Hill learned that Chinx would be performing at the now-defunct Red Wolf Lounge in Brooklyn on May 16, 2015, presumably thanks to a flyer that he shared via Instagram. The two followed Chinx after the show to a hookah bar, and continued to tail him as he drove Queens Boulevard. When Chinx pulled up to a red light at 84th Drive around 4 a.m., Rudolph says Homere fired a 9-mm handgun into the rapper’s Porsche, striking and killing Chinx and wounding his friend and Coke Boys affiliate Yemen Chee$e (real name Antar Alziadi).

“Jemar Hill, he took part in the whole execution of Chinx... but there is only one shooter, and that is Quincy Homere,” says Rudolph. “They were just waiting for an opportunity. So they both acted in concert to kill this kid.”

Hill and Homere have each been charged with second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Homere was already in federal custody on charges of robbing a bank in November 2015. Hill was also locked up on a five-year sentence for a robbery conviction that he began serving in May. Both face 25 years to life in prison if convicted for Chinx’s murder.

The report of Homere’s arrest was first broken by Lisa Evers yesterday morning. TMZ followed shortly after with a report about Hill’s charges. Both plead not guilty to their charges yesterday at Queens Criminal Court.

“There was nothing about this investigation that was easy,” states Rudolph, who commended Det. Thomas Scalise and Det. Vincent Santangelo for their work on the case. He cites yesterday’s arrest to extensive research, interviews with Chinx’s family and affiliates, cell phone data and link analysis. “We chased literally hundreds of investigated leads and hit a lot of brick walls. But the guys just kept on digging. I take pride in my people, the job that they did, that they never quit, they never gave up when most detectives would've walked away from the case.”

Rudolph denied earlier police speculation that Chinx’s murder was related to his friend and music peer Stack Bundles’ shooting death in 2007.

“I'm happy for their family,” he says. “It doesn't help that Chinx's baby is without a father and Chinx's mom is still without a son and Chinx's wife is still a widow. We can only do what we can do, so I'm happy that they have some closure in this.”