Man charged in murder of PIVOT Gang rapper ‘dinnerwithjohn’

An East Garfield Park man was charged Thursday with fatally stabbing a well-known Chicago rapper the day before near the Metra tracks in the Fulton Market District west of the Loop.

The rapper, Walter Long Jr., 24 — known most recently as “dinnerwithjohn” — got into a fight with Kevin Alexander, 23, who pulled out a sharp object about 3:20 p.m. in the 400 block of North Clinton, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Long ended up cut in his upper left torso and was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:52 p.m., authorities said. He lived in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

Alexander was taken into custody about 5:25 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, where he was being treated for a laceration to his chin, police said. He was charged with one count of first degree murder and was expected to appear in bond court Friday.

According to the Chicago hip hop blog Fake Shore Drive, Long was a rapper who was as a founding member of the group PIVOT Gang.

He was currently performing under the name dinnerwithjohn after previously using the stage name John Walt. He last played Jan. 6 at Lincoln Hall on the North Side.

There was an outpouring of grief over Long’s death on Twitter.