PyRexx arrested for allegedly assaulting SeaWorld haunted house employee, Tre9 clarifies

PyRexx, a Houston-based Christian rapper who had served six-and-a-half years behind bars before he turned his life around, is back in jail. But according to his mentor, Tre9, PyRexx’s faith remains strong — he just experienced a series of unfortunate events.

“PyRexx had never been in a haunted house in his life,” Tre9, a former Christian rapper and the director of the ministry Eyes on Me Inc., said. “But he had one of the ministry kids and his son with him, who was so excited about being at SeaWorld and going into a haunted house. [Pyrexx] was like, ‘Noo, I don’t think I should do that.’ But they kind of amped him up like, ‘Aw, you scared, you scared.’ …

“So he went in — and this was his first time ever — and he didn’t anticipate being scared by some demonic-looking figure jumping out at him into his face. And so his natural reaction when he’s scared is to push or punch, and, in this case, with an open hand. He pushed like a punch is what it sounds like, an open-hand punch, to where the girl went down. He didn’t know it was a girl until later.”

Police arrested PyRexx and charged him with a misdemeanor assault, Tre9 said. Although PyRexx bonded out of jail and is innocent of assault until proven guilty, Tre9 alleged that PyRexx’s parole officer wrongly got him re-arrested because the assault violated his parole. PyRexx’s parole was scheduled to last until 2017.

No matter what the court rules, Tre9 said he “absolutely” still plans to name PyRexx director of his ministry Disciple the Streets, which is under Eyes on Me Inc., whenever he is released.

Early on Thursday, Tre9 released a statement about the events, which PyRexx’s wife, Ashley McSweeney, shared on Instagram.

“PyRexx was detained by parole due to a blue warrant that was issued without his knowledge,” Tre9 said. “When he showed up with JoJo [PyRexx’s son] to his monthly parole visit, he was surprised with this arrest. He has a misdemeanor assault case in San Antonio regarding one of the SeaWorld haunted house employees that allegedly jumped too close to him, causing him to push the person in their face out of reflex.

“The court date is set for Jan. 12, and it is possible they will try to detain PyRexx until then. We are praying for a bond to be set so he can be released because his family needs his presence more than HCJ [Harris County Jail] does. This just happened yesterday, and it is something that I’m working on as I type. I will keep you posted as I receive info. Sorry you had to hear about it through the grapevine or on social media, it just hit me suddenly, and my first priority was to find out specifics before spreading bad news. Please pray for his release.”

Tre9, a volunteer chaplain at the Harris County Jail, said he visited PyRexx later that day and learned more.

“I just went in and had a chaplain’s visit with PyRexx,” Tre9 said. “He is strong in his faith but drained emotionally over being locked up. Since he has a blue warrant from his parole officer, he cannot be bonded out. At this point, we wait until his court day Jan. 12 for his misdemeanor in San Antonio to see what happens next.

“His plan was to plead not guilty due to self-defense, but if he does that, he will automatically sit in jail for a year fighting that case. It is likely that he will have to plead guilty and hopefully get time served or 30-60 days additional. Either way it goes, he is not getting out within weeks, but we are praying 30-60 days max! Please pray for favor that the blue warrant would be lifted, so he can get out on bond. I will see him tomorrow morning. For people to write or visit, Joseph McSweeney; Spin#01997789; 7G2 701; North San Jacinto, Houston, TX 77002. We need to hold down his family.”

Over the past year and a half, PyRexx has become a well-known name in Christian hip hop. In Sept. 2014, he released his first mixtape as a Christian, #Workflo Vol. 1, and this past September, he followed up with a retail album, Born Again Disciple.

As a result, his testimony is well-documented. Rapzilla published an in-depth feature story on PyRexx’s criminal past and dramatic change last year.

Tre9 knows people could hear the news of PyRexx’s latest arrest and assume that he backslid, so he provided context and clarity to the disappointing news in an interview with Rapzilla, which has been transcribed below.

Tre9 on PyRexx’s arrest:

PyRexx got out almost five years ago. The last two-and-a-half years, he’s been on his Christian journey, and for the first year, he got acclimated to a Christian foundation. But he also got acclimated to Christian hip hop.

For a while, he and I were inseparable, but then Christian hip hop became a part of his life. He started picking up shows and features and working on his album and mixtape, so he got a little more consumed with Christian rap than I would’ve liked him to. However, I had 18 years of being able to travel that journey, whereas he didn’t, so for me, it was cool that he got to experience getting to know everybody — Thi’sl, Lecrae, Andy Mineo, all these guys — just growing to build his own relationships outside of me.

And so when this guy named Sonic got out of prison about 10 months ago, Sonic moved in with me and immediately hit the ground running. Disciple the Streets is the name of a mission that I came up with a couple years ago, and it was meant for PyRexx to lead, but PyRexx, instead of leading that ministry, began leading the Christian hip-hop career.

When Sonic got out and Sonic started leading, I made him the director. Then PyRexx got plugged back in within the last seven months.

Now, because PyRexx went from the No. 1 man to the No. 2 man, he played that role well. He never changed his game plan. He kept doing music but began going to the streets with me on a regular basis.

Well, 5th Ward is one of our areas where we do a weekly Hip Hop Hope at. PyRexx, I assigned him the job of leading that one, so that means he sets up, he gets on the mic, he hosts it, he keeps the control over the street ministry that goes on there, the testimony and sharing the gospel. For the last five months, he’s been leading the Hip Hope mission in 5th ward.

Sonic fell off about three months ago. He had gotten locked up, and when he bonded out, he basically disappeared and kind of went back to the streets. He’s in a backslidden condition right now.

And so PyRexx became my No. 1 man. I’m hiring him as the Disciple the Streets director, a full-time position, in 2016.

Everything’s going well for him. In music, he’s been on features. He’s done tours with Bizzy Bone, and he’s been traveling to different cities. He’s been doing so many shows here in Houston.

But the biggest thing is he’s been doing so much ministry. He’s one-on-one with people. Every street outreach we do, if PyRexx is free, he’s there, and he frees himself up for it.

He has been in training on how to share the gospel, how to share his faith with others. He’s been baptizing those that come to Christ in the street outreach. He takes his time to pour into his son JoJo, and he’s there as a husband for his wife Ashley.

These are major things for him because you got to understand, when I met PyRexx in prison, a year later, he got out and he was just a terrible man to his wife. He was abusive, and she used to call me crying, “I don’t know what to do,” and I told her to leave him at one time. She did, and it turned out to be a good move because he ended up having to get his act together.

But today, he’s a great father and a great husband at home. They just moved from an apartment into a house, got two cars, they got a wonderful life. He even has a daughter from a previous girlfriend that he pays child support on who he had never had any involvement in her life because he just didn’t know her, and he got a chance to meet her and really wants to be a part of her life.

All these great things were happening to PyRexx, and he had been so faithful and obedient to the call of ministry to being the leader in the head of his home. But on parole, he just couldn’t make a mistake, or else it could cost him his freedom.

I’m a volunteer chaplain at the Harris County Jail. I’m up there every single Friday, and I can go up there any time that I want during business hours and literally walk in anybody’s cell that I want to, and so, I went in to see him about at 5:30 p.m. today [Thursday].

Personally, he wants everybody to know that there’s always consequences to your actions, and he allowed his actions of not being able to control his reflexes or keep calm — his old ways — to cause him to get arrested in the first place in San Antonio [SeaWorld].

Therefore, these are the consequences of his own actions. He recognizes that, and he wants people to know that he will own up and face the consequences of his actions no matter what. He’ll stand by the fact that he did what he did.

But he also wants people to know that his heart is 100 percent sold out to God, and just like his music clarifies, he’s a growing Christian who’s overcoming a life of anger, a life of resentment, a life of survival, just a life of pain.

He looks at me like a father, and I call it a spiritual father, but sometimes he looks to me almost like a biological father — someone that’s coaching him, teaching him how to be a man, how to be a husband and how to be a dad. That’s just one example of many of these men coming out of prison who need to be discipled by men who can show them how to live, who can open their homes to them and invite them to dinner and give them a key to their house so that they can see life lived out.

PyRexx is on that journey. He’s in that process. It just so happens along the way, because of his past life, those consequences do not just go away. You can pay today for what you did five years ago, and he will always live with his criminal record and have to face the consequences of whatever that brings, whether it’s police harassment, whether it’s being the suspect in things that happen around him.

He’s not in there claiming, “Man, I didn’t do nothing.” He knows he did something. He knows he has to overcome his aggression, and he takes responsibility for it, but he also knows that he’s not the same man that he used to be.

I think that’s important for people to understand, and in turn, that should propel them to want to pray for him and make sure that his family is cared for by the body of believers, and that’s what we intend to do.

David Daniels
David Daniels
David Daniels is a columnist at Rapzilla.com and the managing editor of LegacyDisciple.org. He has been published at Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, Christianity Today, CCM Magazine, Bleacher Report, The Washington Times and HipHopDX.
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