Police: Pop Smoke’s social media led killers to LA home
LOS
ANGELES (AP) — Authorities believe rising rapper Pop Smoke was shot and
killed during a Los Angeles home-invasion robbery in February after his
social media posts led five suspects to the house he was renting,
police said after detectives arrested the group Thursday morning.
Los
Angeles police had initially discounted a robbery theory in the days
after the 20-year-old rapper’s death Feb. 19 at a home in the Hollywood
Hills. Pop Smoke’s legal name is Bashar Barakah Jackson.
Capt.
Jonathan Tippet, who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department’s elite
Robbery-Homicide Division, said three men and two teenage boys likely
went to the home because they knew Pop Smoke was there from social media
posts. They stole items from the home, though Tippet said he could not
divulge what was taken. The teens were 15 and 17 years old.
“We
believe that it was a robbery. Initially we didn’t really have the
evidence but then we discovered some other evidence that showed this was
likely a home invasion gone bad,” Tippet told The Associated Press on
Thursday.
The five suspects were arrested Thursday morning as
detectives served several search warrants in Los Angeles. All are
believed to be members of a South Los Angeles gang, which Tippet would
not name, and at least some of them are believed to be linked to a 2019
homicide when a fight escalated into a shooting outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
Pop
Smoke and his entourage staying at the home are not believed to be
associated with the gang, Tippet said. No one else was shot during the
incident.
The Los Angeles Times
reported in February that the rapper had posted pictures of him posing
by an infinity pool in the home’s backyard, as well as a picture of the
Los Angeles skyline from what was likely the house’s backyard. In
another post, Pop Smoke or a member of his entourage put a picture of a
gift bag tagged with the Hollywood Hills address and a different photo
showed him posing by a Ranger Rover in a spot where the home’s address
was partly visible in the background.
“It’s our belief that (the
home-invasion robbery) was based on some of the social media” posts,
Tippet said. “It’s based on the fact that he was posting his information
may have contributed to him knowing where to find him.”
The home
where the shooting occurred is owned by Edwin Arroyave and his wife
Teddi Mellencamp, daughter of Rock & Roll Hall-of-Famer John
Mellencamp and a star of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
Teddi
Mellencamp previously said on Instagram that the couple had been
notified of the shooting at their rental property but knew no more than
what they had seen in media reports.
Pop Smoke arrived on the rap
scene in 2018 and broke out with “Welcome to the Party” a gangsta anthem
with boasts about shootings, killings and drugs that became a huge
sensation, and prompted Nicki Minaj to drop a verse on a remix.
Earlier
this year, Pop Smoke released the mixtape “Meet the Woo 2,” which
debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. It was the
follow up to his first official release, “Meet the Woo.” The rapper also
had the popular hit “Gatti” with Travis Scott and Jackboys and “Dior.”
Last week, Pop Smoke released his posthumous debut album “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon,” which was met with mostly positive reviews. The 19-track album featured several star-studded guests including 50 Cent, Roddy Rich, Future, Swae Lee, Quavo and others.
Associated Press Writer Jonathan Landrum contributed.