BY JESSICA PARKS
Canarsie native and rap artist Pop Smoke was gunned down inside his Los Angeles home on Wednesday morning.
“We are devastated by the unexpected and tragic loss of Pop Smoke,” read a statement from Republic Records. “Our prayers and thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans, as we mourn this loss together.”
The 20-year-old rapper, whose real name is Bashar Jackson, was attacked by gunmen who invaded his Hollywood Hills rental house at 4:30 am, according to a Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson, who could not comment on the motives of the shooters.
Police refused to say who was killed in the home invasion, but Jackson’s record label, Republic Records, confirmed the rapper as the sole victim of the early morning shooting.
LAPD Captain Steve Lurie said multiple police officers responded to the murder at 4:55 am, after an East Coast caller reported that multiple people were breaking into their friend’s home, including one man armed with a pistol.
Lurie said police found one man suffering a gunshot wound, whom firefighters rushed to Cedars -Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Several people were also inside the home but no arrests have yet been made, and the investigation remains ongoing, according to law enforcement officials.
The Brooklyn-born rapper first swept the charts last summer with his hit song “Welcome to the Party” and on Tuesday his record label announced the rapper’s highest debut to date when his new mixtape, “Meet the Woo 2” landed him in the top 10 of Billboard’s Top 200.
He made headlines last month when he was charged in Brooklyn Federal Court for transporting a stolen vehicle from California to his mother’s southern Brooklyn home.
The rapper pled not guilty, and was released on a $250,000 bond. He had been facing up to 10 years behind bars.
At the time of his arraignment on Jan. 20, prosecutors argued against setting bail due to Pop Smoke’s presumed involvement with the 823 G Stone Crips, US attorney Gillian Kassner said.
This story first appeared on brooklynpaper.com.
