Four people, including two minors, were charged Monday with murder in February for the murder of Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke during a robbery in Los Angeles, prosecutors said.
Corey Walker, 19, and Keandre Rodgers, 18, were the only two named by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
They are charged with murder on the special circumstance charge that the murder occurred during the commission of a robbery and a robbery, making them eligible for the death penalty, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. The decision on whether to search for her will be made at a later date, the office said.
Two others, ages 17 and 15, have also been charged with one count of murder and robbery, according to the office, but were not identified.
Pop Smoke, 20, whose legal name is Bashar Barakah Jackson, was killed in the Hollywood Hills short-term rental house where he was staying on the morning of February 19, police said.
The Los Angeles Police Department announced Thursday that five people had been arrested in connection with the Brooklyn rapper shooting, including the four accused since then.
The fifth person whose arrest was announced last week by the Los Angeles Police Department, Jaquan Murphy, 21, is not currently charged in connection with the murder of Pop Smoke, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office said.
Murphy, who was detained in jail Monday night, is charged with an unrelated murder, spokesman Greg Risling said.
Online jail records indicate that Murphy was held in lieu of a $ 1 million bond. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Walker and Rodgers are also being held in lieu of bail, online jail records show. The charges continued through Tuesday, the spokesman for the district attorney’s office said.
Pop Smoke collaborated on songs with artists like Nicki Minaj, JackBoys, and Travis Scott. Her posthumous album, “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon,” was released on Friday and was produced by rapper 50 Cent.
He, the son of Panamanian and Jamaican parents, told Genius that the name “Pop Smoke” was born from a combination of “Papa,” which his Panamanian grandmother used to call him, and “Smoke Oh Guap,” a nickname his friends gave him. .
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced in March a moratorium on the state’s death penalty, but prosecutors are still free to request the penalty. California’s last execution was in 2006.
When the five people were arrested last week, Los Angeles police in a statement referenced members of a Los Angeles street gang involved in the Jackson murder.
More details about the connection were not immediately available, but the district attorney’s office said the criminal complaint against Walker and Rodgers “also alleges allegations of gangs and weapons.”
