A rising rapper, an ill-fated Instagram post and a killing in the Hollywood Hills
LOS ANGELES – At 2 a.m., a black BMW rolled past a house the rapper Pop Smoke was renting in the Hollywood Hills.
The driver circled back and stopped. A security camera across the street captured a passenger getting out and sneaking toward the back of the house before returning a minute later. The car sped off.
The budding rap star was a few miles away at a recording studio on Sunset Boulevard. He returned two hours later and again a car pulled up — an Infiniti sedan with its headlights off. This time, four people emerged and slipped into the shadows along the side of the house.
Ten minutes later, three of them ran back into the camera's frame. The footage showed the fourth walk out the front door holding a purse and a gun.
Inside, the musician lay sprawled at the foot of a staircase, dying from a gunshot wound to the chest.
The death of Pop Smoke, whose real name was Bashar Barakah Jackson, stunned the music world in February of last year. Now, details of the slaying and how detectives tracked his alleged killers have come to light.
In court last week, Los Angeles
