32-year-old Rapper ‘Half Ounce’ Fatally Shot in Los Angeles
The city already had a notorious history for rappers, and in the last month at least two more artists have been slain there.
Latauriisha O’Brien, 32, who performs under the name “Half Ounce,” was found fatally shot late Oct. 3, police and his family said, the latest of several rap notables who have been killed in Los Angeles in the past two years.
The Los Angeles Police Department said officers responded to multiple calls of shots fired around 11:30 a.m. in the Koreatown neighborhood and found a man fatally shot in front of an apartment building.
The slain man’s family confirmed to NBC Los Angeles that the person killed was O’Brien, a father of three who worked at UPS while attending school.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office also confirmed O’Brien was the victim. An examination was pending Tuesday, an office spokesperson said.
Police officials said motive was unknown and that the investigation was in its early stages. Investigators are looking for a man wearing dark clothing who fled south from the crime scene on New Hampshire Avenue in a dark-colored SUV.
Monday’s killing occurred three weeks after rapper PnB Rock was shot and killed in a botched robbery at Roscoe’s Chicken ‘N Waffles in South Los Angele. Three people, including a 17-year-old and his father, have been arrested and charged in the Sept. 12 killing.
In December, rapper Drakeo the Ruler, whose real name is Darrell Caldwell, died after being stabbed during a fight behind the main stage at Banc of California Stadium during the Once Upon a Time in LA music festival.
Brooklyn, New York, rapper Pop Smoke, whose real name is Bashar Barakah Jackson, was shot and killed during a reported home invasion in Los Angeles on Feb. 19, 2020, while he was in Los Angeles on a business trip.
Four people, including two juveniles, were charged in that case.
In March 2019, Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle was shot and killed outside his South Los Angeles clothing store. In July, Eric R. Holder Jr. was found guilty of first-degree murder in the Hussle slaying.
It’s been 25 years since the rapper known as “Notorious B.I.G.” and “Biggie Smalls,” was gunned down in a car-to-car shooting March 9, 1997.
The shooting of the rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, has never been solved.
It happened following a party at the Petersen Auto Museum in Mid City neighborhood of L.A. in what is believed to have been the crescendo of a building feud between East and West Coast rap artists.
This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
