*The Los Angeles police department allegedly targeted Nipsey Hussle’s The Marathon Clothing store before his death in 2019, labeling it a “hot spot” for crime.
Hussle was fatally shot outside his store in Los Angeles in March 2019. According to reports, the suspected gunman, Eric Holder, became enraged when Nipsey talked back to him after he fired off two shots that hit the L.A. native. The L.A. County District Attorney charged Holder with 4 crimes, including premeditated murder. A Grand Jury indicted him on murder, 2 counts of attempted murder, and possession of a firearm by a felon. Additionally, the Grand Jury added 2 counts of assault with a firearm for the victims who were shot but survived.
At the time of his death, Nipsey Hussle was working on several civic development projects to revitalize his Los Angeles neighborhood. For this reason, Holder reportedly claimed he was paid to kill Nipsey, according to unconfirmed reports.
READ MORE: Trial Date Set for Eric Holder, Man Accused of Killing Nipsey Hussle
Per RollingOut, this claim has been published by media outlets, Lipstick Alley, Hip-hop Wired, Daily Motion and others, based on unconfirmed sources from an Instagram post. According to these insiders, Holder stated that he was propositioned by someone in the Los Angeles Police Department to assassinate Nipsey. Holder was allegedly offered $75,000 for the hit and was told he would not be charged for the killing.
Here’s more from The Guardian:
Internal records obtained by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition and shared with the Guardian shed new light on how LAPD invested resources into policing at Crenshaw and Slauson, suggesting that for years the department focused enforcement efforts around the community gathering spot where Hussle had bought commercial space and was working to redevelop a corner strip mall. It was a target point … It was like everybody walking out of the shop would get harassed or arrested
The files were acquired through public records requests, are part of the coalition’s new report on “data-driven” LAPD initiatives that will be released on Monday. The report scrutinizes a controversial and now-shuttered LAPD program called Operation Laser (an acronym for Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration), which aimed to prevent crime and “restore peace”.
Critics said the initiative enabled surveillance and racial profiling and harassment of Black and Latino residents.
Hussle opened The Marathon Clothing store in 2017. In the days after the grand opening, LAPD set out to shut the spot down. The Guardian notes that the “LAPD recorded 58 stops” during the first week the store was open, “but made only seven arrests, suggesting that for the vast majority of people stopped or detained, there was no probable cause to arrest them,” the outlet writes.
“LAPD was speculatively criminalizing the location,” said Shakeer Rahman, a Stop LAPD Spying organizer and lawyer. The data that the officers collected could then be used to justify further targeting, he added: “Police are deployed to these locations, armed with what they’re told are these ‘data-driven trends’ … but those trends are just the racial profiling that police have always done.”
Samiel Asghedom, Nipsey Hussle’s brother, said LAPD frequently harassed his family and passersby at the plaza.
“It was like every ten minutes a [police] car is coming through the lot, and officers are hopping out. It was nonstop,” said Asghedom.
“It became, ‘Don’t come here if you don’t want police contact.’ If you did have a warrant, you ain’t coming to buy nothing from us. It was like, ‘Shit, I’m gonna get pulled over. I’m gonna get targeted,’” he said.
LAPD officers were angry about the success of the store.
“We’re here every day selling clothes, so there is less crime. This is something that y’all should be happy about. But instead, their whole goal was just to shut it down.”
After Hussle’s death, the New York Times reported that the city had pressured the landlord to evict the rapper and his business partners. Asghedom said that the landlord supported them.
“He was making money. We were making improvements to the lot. He tried to voice that to the police, and they didn’t give a fuck about none of it. They said, ‘We’re trying to label this as a city ‘nuisance’, and if you don’t sever their lease, we’re going to seize the lot from you.’”
Instead of evicting them, the landlord sold the property to Hussle and his business partners.
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