Lil Wayne is mourning the death of 65-year-old Robert Hoobler, the former New Orleans police officer who saved his life following a suicide attempt. Emergency responders found Hoobler’s body at his Old Jefferson home on Friday. According to Hoobler’s grandson Daniel Nelson, the retired detective had struggled with health issues for years related to a car accident and diabetes. In fact, a doctor was forced to amputate both of his legs due to his condition.

As the news spread, Lil Wayne took his grief to Instagram to share with his 15.6 million followers. “Everything happens for a reason,” he wrote alongside a photo of Hoobler standing in front of Wayne’s old house. “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.”

Former New Orleans Police Department officer and Hoobler’s longtime friend David Lapene called Lil Wayne’s account of what happened “one of the best stories that depicts Hoobler as a person.”
Lil Wayne was just 12 years old when he attempted to take his own life. The burgeoning rap star was reportedly depressed after his mother banned him from rapping as a punishment for skipping school.

“I was just looking [in the mirror] like, ‘You know what?’ Start thinking I had to get myself mad and I noticed that I didn’t have to — that’s what scared me,” Wayne recalled during a 2021 interview with ex NFL player Emmanual Acho. “How I knew I had mental health problems was I pulled the trigger.”

As officers arrived at the scene, Wayne said multiple officers stepped over his bloody body to instead search for drugs and weapons. Hoobler, who was actually off-duty at the time, showed up and rushed Lil Wayne to the hospital. “[He] picked me up and just kept telling me some shit like, ‘You not gonna die on me,’” he said. “And so he got me to the hospital … He made sure I was good.”