Lil Wayne is mourning ‘Uncle Bob’ aka Robert Hoobler, the cop who saved him from suicide when he was 12-years-old.
The Lollipop hitmaker has previously spoken about his admiration for Robert Hoobler, who he called ‘Uncle Bob’, after the cop saved his life when he was just 12- years- old. The former officer passed away on July 22 and the 39-year-old rapper has vowed to ‘live’ for his friend.
Sharing a photo of Hoobler, Lil Wayne posted on Instagram: “Everything happens for a reason. I was dying when I met u at this very spot. U refused to let me die. 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.(sic)”
Last August, the former cop revealed the rapper offered him financial help if he ever needed it when they met up in 2019, telling him ‘all he has to do is say the word’.
However, Hoobler said at the time he had not taken the rapper up on his generous offer but they have had discussions about him joining Lil Wayne’s team in ‘some sort of administrative capacity’.
Lil Wayne opened up about his mental health issues and the devastating day he used his mother’s gun to try to end his life, in a previous episode of Uncomfortable Conversations with Emmanuel Acho.
He said: “I picked up the phone, I called the police. Yes, I knew where she put her gun and it was in her bedroom. And so I went in her bedroom, grabbed the gun. I already made the phone call, looked in the mirror.
“I pulled the trigger. I shot in my chest. I aimed for my heart, didn’t feel a thing though. So I wasn’t going through any pain, it was the shock.
“I woke up to the police knocking, that’s what woke me up. It took too long to die. We had wooden floors and the blood was pouring out of my chest, it made it easy for me to slide with my shirt across the floor. I kicked the door so they could hear me.”
The Grammy Award winner explained that a number of officers stepped over him to get into the house to look for drugs or weapons but ‘Uncle Bob’, said “Do you not see the baby on the ground with this hole in his chest?”
He added: “He picked me up and kept saying ‘you’re not gonna die on me’. And so he brought me to the hospital. I met him years later and he said to me, ‘I’m just happy to see I saved a life that mattered’.”
