Police identify suspect in Nipsey Hussle killing as 29-year-old L.A. man - Los Angeles Times
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Police identify suspect in Nipsey Hussle killing as 29-year-old L.A. man

Nipsey Hussle gunned down in a South L.A. he helped build up.

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Los Angeles police have identified a suspect in the killing of rapper Nipsey Hussle as Eric Holder, 29, of Los Angeles, and said they are searching for him.

Law enforcement sources said Holder got into a dispute with the rapper before the shooting.

Holder was last seen in a white, four-door 2016 Chevy Cruze, with the license plate number 7RJD742.

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The sources said earlier Monday that detectives believed the killer was someone in the rap star’s orbit. Detectives believe the gunman has gang ties but that the motive is likely personal in nature rather than a larger gang feud. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the case publicly.

Just before the shooting, Hussle tweeted: “Having strong enemies is a blessing.”

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office said Monday that he died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Meanwhile, a vigil on Monday night for the rapper outside the store where he was shot turned violent, with several people injured.

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Hussle was shot multiple times around 3:20 p.m. by a young man who opened fire at close range before bolting to a getaway car, police said.

Paramedics took Hussle to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The shooting came a day before Hussle was scheduled to meet with LAPD Chief Michel Moore and Police Commissioner Steve Soboroff “to talk about ways he could help stop gang violence and help us help kids,” Soboroff said.

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At the Watts Civic Center on Monday morning, Moore urged residents to come forward, even anonymously, with information on violent crimes. “We will conduct lawful investigations and bring them to justice.”

Moore agreed with a resident who said social media was fueling violence. “We see social media as absolutely driving violence. I’ll just say it.”

Various social media platforms allow “an attitude of disrespect and it gets settled on the street,” Moore said. He urged the 70 residents attending the weekly gang task force meeting to demand that posts on social media be respectful.

After the meeting, Moore said Hussle “tragically lost his life” in a place where he was working to improve the community.

FULL COVERAGE: Nipsey Hussle gunned down in South L.A. »

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“Throughout the years as he fostered success in his music career ... he chose, rather than to leave ... to come back and reinvest. And to reinvest and try to address the various underpinnings that fostered this environment,” Moore said, adding that the shooting was “just terrible.”

Hussle made no secret of his early life in a street gang, saying in a 2014 interview with YouTube channel Vlad TV that he had joined the Rollin’ 60s, a notorious Crips gang clique, as a teenager.

“We dealt with death, with murder,” he told The Times in 2018. “It was like living in a war zone, where people die on these blocks and everybody is a little bit immune to it. I guess they call it post-traumatic stress, when you have people that have been at war for such a long time. I think L.A. suffers from that because it’s not normal yet we embrace it like it is after a while.”

Community leaders and politicians have urged people with any information about the killing to come forward.

“Violent retaliation for this event will not be tolerated,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “Our communities have lost too many young men and bright futures to the scourge of gun violence. For healing to occur, even from this terrible incident, justice must be sought through legal means, and community peace must be found.”

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