'Island Boys' Florida Home Raided By SWAT Team, Murder Suspect Arrested

'Island Boys'Alex and Franky Venegas' Florida house was just raided by a SWAT team, looking for a murder suspect believed to be hiding inside.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's descended on the famous rappers' rental property, executing a search warrant for Andrew James Thomas. The person faces first-degree murder with firearm charges after an 8-year-old girl was killed during a drive-by shooting.

Authorities raided the home of the 'Island Boys' in Coral Springs, Florida after an investigation revealed Thomas was a childhood friend of the rap duo and might be staying at their home.

According to the police report, Alex Venegas told officers the suspect ran toward him in a hallway of the house while carrying a black handgun with an extended magazine. The incident occurred after SWAT team members knocked on the day, and Alex claimed the murder suspect tried to get him to hide the gun, but he refused.

After the officers entered the property, Alex reportedly told them Thomas ran into the laundry room and returned without the gun. Of course, they found the gun inside the laundry room closet during the search. Thomas was taken into custody on several charges, including ones connected to the drive-by shooting.

The 'Island Boys' manager addressed the incident claiming the rappers' childhood friend showed up a few nights ago and crashed on their couch, and they had no idea he was in any trouble.

"We had no idea any of this was going on, really. We just knew him as a quiet kid and he would come and hang out and do his thing and go back to whatever he got going on but we had no clue about any of these allegations toward him. We just knew him as a good person, someone who grew up with the Island Boys," he said. 

Adding, Alex from the 'Island Boys' cried after realizing his friend was being arrested for first-degree murder. "If we knew anything like this was going on we wouldn’t have allowed him on the property," the manager continued.

As for the tragic 8-year-old's death -- reports say that witnesses say Ronziyah 'Biggs' Atkins was playing outside with her siblings and cousins, when someone opened fire, striking the young girl. A family member said she was "helping save" her family before she was shot. "She was telling her niece to go inside and don’t worry about her, just go inside," her Godbrother said. Adding, "She was a very good person to tell her niece just to go inside."

According to local reports, Thomas has a prior criminal record -- after being arrested in 2019 for armed robbery and was sentenced to six years probation.

The 'Island Boys' have a fairly serious criminal history too. The boys recently opened up about being raised by a single mother and racked up charges of burglary, robbery, grand theft auto, and drug issues. They admitted during an interview to doing drugs as teenagers including Percocet, forcing one of them to be hospitalized three times.

Again, at this point, the 'Island Boys' are not being connected to the murder in any way, and their home is believed to be the place where the suspect was crashing.