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A New Orleans Police Department officer who had a hand in saving Lil Wayne’s life after the superstar rapper shot himself in the chest as a boy retired this week, ending a 33-year career.
Kevin Balancier spent his final years on the force ensuring the maintenance of the headquarters and patrol cruisers for officers working in the 4th District in Algiers. But one day in November 1994, Balancier helped alter the course of music history when responding to a 911 call from the 12-year-old boy who grew up to become Lil Wayne.
That afternoon, Dwayne Carter Jr. left school early because it was report card day. He bought lunch from Burger King and was eating it in the master bedroom of his home when he saw a 9mm pistol. It had been left there the previous day by a man who had been over to watch football, according to the NOPD’s report on the case.
Dwayne picked the gun up, started playing around with it in front of a stereo blaring music and fired a bullet through his chest. The boy dialed 911, crawled to the front door and waited for help as he bled out.
The first to arrive was officer Robert Hoobler, who was off-duty. He kicked the door down when he realized the wounded boy couldn’t open it. Hoobler radioed to dispatchers that they needed to send an ambulance, but none was immediately available.
That’s where Balancier, who arrived after Hoobler, came in. Balancier backed his cruiser up into the driveway of Dwayne’s home and had Hoobler get in the rear with the dying boy. While Hoobler cradled Dwayne across his lap “like a little baby” in the back seat, Balancier sped off to the nearest hospital that they could think of: Ochsner Medical Center in Jefferson Parish.
Balancier opened the door and let Hoobler out after they got to Ochsner’s emergency room. Hoobler put Dwayne on a gurney before nurses and doctors wheeled him away — and ultimately saved his life.
Years later, the officers remembered how a nurse approached them and said: “If y’all had waited for (an ambulance) … he would have died. You saved that kid’s life.”
The rest, as they say, is history. That kid has since sold more than 120 million records worldwide, won five Grammy Awards and is the chief executive officer of Young Money Entertainment, among other things.
Lil Wayne, over the years, has intermittently spoken about the actions of the officers who saved his life that day. While accepting a BET Hip-Hop Award in 2018, he said he had recently spoken to Hoobler and had never forgotten how the officer “refused to let (him) die.”
“He made sure I made it,” Lil Wayne said.
But as with most things, over time the story of that day has since grown more complicated.
For one, in 2012, Hoobler’s career in law enforcement ended with his being fired by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office after he repeatedly shocked a man with a stun gun during an arrest. Hoobler was also accused of hurling racial slurs at that man.
Prosecutors charged Hoobler with malfeasance. He was placed on probation for a year after entering an "Alford" guilty plea, in which a defendant does not admit culpability but concedes strong evidence could lead to his conviction. Hoobler later received a first-offender pardon, according to court records.
Meanwhile, in some of his lyrics, Lil Wayne has suggested his self-inflicted 1994 shooting was actually a suicide attempt, during a particularly traumatic time for the city. That year, New Orleans set its ignominious all-time record high for murders, and the NOPD’s reputation arguably plummeted to its nadir when an officer arranged the execution of a woman who had filed a brutality complaint against him.
On Solange’s 2016 song “Mad,” Lil Wayne sang, “And when I attempted suicide, I didn’t die. I remember how mad I was on the day. Man, you gotta let it go before it get up in the way.”
Then, on an album he released in 2018, Lil Wayne sang: “I aimed where my heart was pounding. I shot it, and I woke up with blood around me. It’s mine, I didn’t die, but as I was dying, God came to my side and we talked about it. He sold me another life and he made me a prophet.”
Nonetheless, for Balancier, his retirement Wednesday was a day of celebration and reflection on his three-plus decades of service to the city. The 4th District’s commander, Capt. Lawrence Dupree, presented Balancier with a ceremonial coin of excellence to mark his retirement.
“This job — every day is something new, and it’s an exciting job that I love,” Balancier said in a video published by the NOPD two days after the retirement ceremony. “And I’ll love (it) to my dying day.”
https://www.nola.com/news/crime_poli...c7782f718.html
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