Pop Smoke Killed by Teen Wanting Rapper’s Diamond-Studded Rolex, LAPD Detective Testifies
Pop Smoke was shot and killed last February in a Los Angeles rental home by a 15-year-old who was part of a group trying to steal the 20-year-old rapper’s diamond-studded Rolex, according to a detective who testified in the case on Friday.
The teenager, who is the youngest member of the group of four suspects who are being prosecuted in the Feb. 19, 2020 murder and robbery case, confirmed he had shot Pop Smoke (né Bashar Barakah Jackson) during a recorded interview with a cellmate at a juvenile detention center last May, according to Los Angeles Police Department detective Carlos Camacho.
“He admitted that he shot the victim three times with a Baretta 9 (mm.),” Camacho said at a preliminary hearing for Corey Walker, another one of the four defendants in the case, according to the New York Daily News. Walker pleaded not guilty in the case.
The teenager accused of shooting Pop Smoke “admitted that they asked for the jewelry” and then had “a confrontation” with the rapper, Camacho said. The juvenile suspect’s name has not been disclosed.
“They got into a fight, and he shot him three times,” Camacho testified. “He said he shot him on the back.”
The detective said the suspects were also trying to steal Pop Smoke’s Cuban link chain, but were only able to take the Rolex, which he said they resold for $2,000.
Public testimony in the case of Jackson’s death began Thursday, with LAPD detectives saying the four suspects were part of the same same gang. According to the detectives, the suspects learned the rapper was staying at an Airbnb rental in the Hollywood Hills from his Instagram account, where they read the address off a gift bag label in a photo that included a large amount of money.
Rapper Pop Smoke Was Shot by 15-Year-Old Over Diamond-Studded Rolex: Detective
Pop Smoke Murdered By 15-Year-Old For His Diamond Rolex, Detective Testifies
Pop Smoke, born Bashar Barakah Jackson, was one of the fastest rising rappers in recent memory when he was murdered in February 2020 at the age of 20. The Brooklyn drill star’s music has continued to become more exponentially popular since then, with debut album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon spinning off radio hit after radio hit. His death was a huge loss for hip-hop, and details from new police testimony make it feel even more tragic.
Five people were arrested last summer in connection with Pop Smoke’s death. At the time police said masked intruders had stormed his Airbnb in Los Angeles and shot him to death. As the New York Daily News reports, LAPD detective Carlos Camacho testified Friday that the shooter was 15 years old.
According to Camacho’s testimony — given in a preliminary hearing for a separate suspect in the investigation, 20-year-old Corey Walker, who is being defended by former O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden — the attackers targeted Pop Smoke with the intention of stealing the diamond-studded Rolex they’d seen him wearing in social media posts, which they later sold for $2,000. The detective said Pop Smoke was showering when the suspects entered his Airbnb at 4AM, and that he complied with their requests at first but was shot dead when he rushed at the suspects. Camacho said both the alleged shooter and Walker, who was waiting in a car outside, confessed to the killing in secretly recorded conversations with informants in jail.
It’s always wise to be skeptical of the official police narrative, but it’s also worth noting that Camacho was testifying under oath here. If this is how it went down, it makes an already sad story feel that much more terrible.