|
The shooting on Thursday afternoon in Palmdale, a community
about 35 miles (56 km) north of Los Angeles, occurred with about
15 guests inside the fast-food restaurant, where the rapper was
eating lunch, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
spokeswoman Deputy Guillermina Saldana.
"It appears to detectives that the victim was the intended
target of the suspect and that this was not a random shooting,"
Saldana said.
The Sheriff's Department identified the person shot inside the
fast-food restaurant as 38-year-old Habeeb Ameer Zekajj, who
according to local media is the rapper named Big Paybacc. His
popular music videos on YouTube include "Gangsta Luv" and "I'm
Frum Gangstaz."
Comments posted to social media after Zekajj's death paid
tribute to him. "Rest in peace," the hip-hop website Global
Grind said on its Twitter page.
Sheriff's deputies found Zekajj in the fast-food restaurant with
multiple gunshot wounds, Saldana said. Local media reported the
shooting occurred at a McDonald's, but Saldana declined to
confirm that.
Detectives are looking for the shooter, she said.
Jessica Jefferson, a woman who identified herself as the
rapper's girlfriend, told local television station CBS2 that he
had three children.
"He's a good rapper, and he has so many followers and people who
stand behind him. He really is a good, solid person," Jefferson
told the station.(This version of the story has been corrected
to change name of hip-hop website to Global Grind, instead of
Global Gring, in paragraph 5)
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Eric Beech)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
