Nipsey Hussle's brother recalls rapper's last moments, says he frantically tried to save him by performing CPR
Slain rapper Nipsey Hussle's elder brother, Samiel Asghedom, has spoken out for the first time since the murder and revealed how he was at the scene of the shooting much before even the paramedics arrived.
At around 3:25 pm on Sunday, March 31, Hussle was shot multiple times in the parking lot of his store, Marathon Clothing, which he founded along with Asghedom and partners Carless and Civil in the same strip mall outside of which he used to hang out as a teen.
He was hit five times in the torso and once in the head, with Asghedom explaining to Los Angeles Times how, once he got the call about the shooting, he ignored red lights and rushed to the scene within minutes.
Seeing his brother's bloodstained shirt and the gaping bullet hole in his leg, Asghedom said he felt there was "no reason for him to be breathing." But after finding that he was still alive, he immediately called 911 and, following the dispatcher's instructions, began CPR.
When paramedics finally arrived at the scene and lifted Hussle off the pavement onto a stretcher, Asghedom saw the gunshot wound at the back of his brother's head and knew that he could do little but pray.
Asghedom said their clothing store hired mostly felons because of how hard it was for someone with a criminal record to find a job, and how it may have been his brother's undoing because of the prohibition on felons carrying guns.
"Because of that, the man was able to shoot my brother, start running, realize nobody out there had a gun, stop, turn back around, walk up, shoot my brother two more times, start to run, realize nobody had a gun, nobody was responding, ran back up and shot my brother three more times, shoot him in the head and kicked him in the head and then ran off," he told the LA Times. "If somebody would’ve been there — if I would’ve been there — I would’ve shot back. I just wish I would've been there."
He said his brother's death felt like "an execution," and that he still has no idea why someone would want to kill him. "It doesn’t make sense that somebody from the area, that just snuck up, and just talked to him and shook his hand minutes before," he said. "It's mind-boggling."
Police have arrested 29-year-old Eric Holder in connection to Hussle's murder, and are said to believe that he was known to the rapper and that the murder was possibly motivated over a personal matter.
Holder, who is reportedly being represented by OJ Simpson's former prosecutor Christopher Darden, has previously pleaded no contest to possession of a loaded firearm in 2012 and was subsequently sentenced to six months in jail and three years' probation.
He has entered a plea of not guilty in connection to Hussle's murder.