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Officers on patrol heard gunshots shortly after 8 p.m. on Monday
in East Oakland and found 37-year-old Dominic Newton, who
performs as "The Jacka," suffering from a gunshot wound, Oakland
police said in a written statement.
Newton was treated at the scene and then taken to a local
hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
No arrests had been made in the case as of Tuesday morning. No
other details were immediately provided by police.
A man who described himself as a friend of Newton told KNTV news
in the Bay Area that Newton was shot while rapping with friends
in a van.
“Bullets don’t have no name. I don’t now who did it,” Reggie
Grant, 51, told the station. “He had problems with nobody. He’d
give you his shoes off his feet. He gave jobs to lots of
people.”
Newton, who converted to Islam as a boy, also went by the name
Shaheed Akbar before adopting "The Jacka" as a stage name.
Newton debuted in 1999 with the group Mob Figaz on the album
“C-Bo’s Mob Figaz, which reached No. 63 on the Billboard Hip Hop
chart, before releasing solo albums including “Jacka of the Mob
Figaz” in 2001, “Tear Gas” in 2009 and “What Happened To The
World” last year.
His death quickly brought reaction from the music industry and
others. Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon tweeted out: “R.I.P the
Jacka,” and offered his condolences to Newton's family and
friends.
Portland Trailblazers guard Damian Lillard tweeted: “Life was
taken tonight IN OAKLAND. Got to do better toward our own man.”
(Reporting by Michael Fleeman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Eric
Walsh)
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