LA rapper Half Ounce shot dead 'with almost a dozen bullets' while on phone with pregnant wife
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Inglewood Rapper Latauriisha O’Brien aka Half Ounce was shot dead on Monday, October 3, around 11:30 pm local time. On Tuesday, October 4, the LAPD confirmed the news of the 32-year-old being shot dead. The police received multiple radio calls regarding shots being fired and a man screaming in the 700 block of South New Hampshire Avenue. The suspect is yet to be identified by the police as he is described as a black man driving a dark SUV.
This incident makes Half Ounce the third rapper in a month to have been shot and killed in LA County. On September 12, rapper PnB Rock was shot dead near a restaurant while 23-year-old Kee Riches was murdered on September 24 in Compton. Although these shootings seem unrelated to each other, Los Angeles Police Department said that there has been an increase in follow-home robberies, especially ones targeting celebrities.
READ MORE
Who killed Rollie Bands? Rapper shot dead after daring enemies to 'pull up' at his crib
The tragedy occurred late at night in Koreatown when the rapper was walking in the neighborhood with his friend when "someone in the passenger seat of a dark SUV" opened fire at him. The rapper's friend fled and the police are hunting for him. Police said that the rapper was on his phone with his wife, who is pregnant with the his fourth child, when the unfortunate incident took place. As soon as she heard the sound of shots, she alerted authorities, according to Fox 11. The rapper's body was found in a planter nearby where paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department declared him dead at the scene.
According to LAPD Lieutenant John Radtke, they were still trying to figure out the reason behind the two people being in that neighborhood that day. It was said that about almost a dozen rounds were fired. The department is thoroughly going through the security footage and the surveillance videos recorded by the local houses to identify both the suspect and Half Ounce's friend.
The rapper has three children - two sons, a nine-month-old and a nine-year-old, and an eight-year-old daughter. He was about to release his new song 'Drop the Ball' on October 14, which he had announced through Instagram.