Featured Image Credit: ABC7 Los Angeles/Claudio Lavenia/Getty Images
Topics: Music, Police, Los Angeles
Anish Vij
Topics: Music, Police, Los Angeles
Police have launched an investigation after the naked body of a rapper was found dead in a barrel - amid reports that his killing could be linked to the murder of Pop Smoke.
At 10:10am, a lifeguard from Malibu Beach noticed a 55-gallon plastic barrel drum floating in the lagoon, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept Information Bureau (LASD) said.
"The lifeguard retrieved the 55-gallon plastic barrel drum, opened it, and discovered a deceased male Black adult, unclothed," a LASD statement reads.
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Homicide Investigators identified the body as Javonnta Marshann Murphy, a 32-year-old rapper who resided in the Los Angeles area.
"The victim’s identity was confirmed by the Coroner’s Office through fingerprints," the statement added.
This comes after TMZ reported that Murphy was the older brother of Jaquan Murphy, one of five suspects arrested in the February 2020 murder of Pop Smoke, 20, during a home-invasion robbery.
Police are reportedly now looking into the possibility that Javonnta Murphy’s shooting death was a revenge killing, according to TMZ’s law enforcement sources.
On February 19, 2020, the rapper - whose real name Bashar Barakah Jackson - was renting a house owned by The Real Housewives star Teddi Mellencamp and her husband, Edwin Arroyave, in Hollywood Hills, California.
At around 4:30am, five hooded men, including one wearing a ski mask and carrying a handgun, broke into the house through a second-story balcony.
The intruders held a gun to a woman's head and threatened to kill her.
Shortly after, the woman heard the men shoot Jackson three times after an altercation.
LAPD arrived at the home six minutes later and found Jackson with multiple gunshot wounds.
A few hours after being rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, he was pronounced dead.
Officials later believed his death was the consequence of a home robbery gone wrong.
It was believed the intruders stole Jackson's gold watch and other jewellery before running away from the house.
In May 2021, a 15-year-old, the youngest of the four intruders, allegedly admitted to killing Jackson over a diamond-studded Rolex during a recorded interview with a cellmate at a juvenile detention center.
Jackson's mum, Audrey, said at the time of his death: "You know him as Pop Smoke, we called him 'Shar'.
"Because of gun violence, I'll never see my son run up the front of our steps, taking them two at a time; he won't ever take my hands again and dance with me; he won't come into my room and muscle pose in the mirror.
"Gun violence destroys families. It must stop."