Following the shooting death hip hop artist and activist, Nipsey Hussle, community leaders came together to make a call to action and to dispel rumors regarding the case.
The 33-year-old was shot and killed in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon in front of a clothing store he owned called Marathon Clothing. According to ABC7 News, the shooting took place around 3:20 p.m. and involved two other victims, who are expected to recover.
On Monday afternoon, community leaders held a press conference in the same area where Hussle was shot. “Nipsey Hussle is someone who is a champion of peace,” activist Najee Ali said. “He called for peace, he called for justice and that’s why we’re calling upon whoever killed Nipsey ‘turn yourself in.’”
Ali urged the community to cooperate with police and “break the code of silence,” and called on Black celebrities Snoop Dog, Ice Cube and Jay-Z to do more than just tweet:
“All of those who went on Twitter with condolences, if you really want to pay tribute to Nipsey, don’t go on Twitter, come finish the mission. Come to Crenshaw,” Ali said. “We have to act and live like Black lives matter instead of it being a chant and a slogan.”
Fellow community activist, Skipp Townsend ripped into the rumors that the shooting was gang violence, a common stereotype when hip hop artists are killed, “Let’s stop all the rumors in the community about who might have done it. It’s no gang violence, this is a targeted situation and it was not gang-related. There was no one gang member that came to target the Crenshaw and Slauson area. Nipsey made himself accessible, he did not run, he did not hide, he was here daily.”
Townsend also noted that there were a lot of cameras in the area and that LAPD had a lot of evidence to comb through, and that there were survivors who could let the police know what happened.
Denise Frances Woods, who is a candidate for the Los Angeles City Council for district eight, the area were Hussle did his community activism, said she knew Hussle since he was a kid and called his death “tragic.” Woods also reminded the community that Hussle’s death is not an isolated incident, but a part of a larger problem.
“Let me reinform everybody, this happens all the time,” Woods said. “Yesterday it was Nipsey, the day before yesterday it was somebody else, last week it was somebody else. This is a continuing problem in this particular district [and] we need everybody to have boots on the ground.”
Based on a tweet by Los Angeles Police Cheif Michael Moore, Nipsey Hussle was one of 26 people killed in across the city in the last week.
Other community members called Hussle a role-model and expressed that he would truly be missed. Ali dubbed Hussle their “Shining Black Prince.” At the press conference, it was also announced that paperwork had been sent to their city councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson to name the intersection of Crenshaw and Slauson, “Nipsey Hussle Way.”
You can watch the full press conference here:
Rest in power, Nipsey Hussle.
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