Last week, five arrests were made in connection with the February 2020 death of Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke. Today (July 13), the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has announced murder charges for four of the suspects: Two adult men, Corey Walker and Keandre Rodgers, have been charged with murder during a robbery and a burglary. If convicted, Walker and Rodgers face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The D.A.’s Office has also charged two juvenile males (aged 17 and 15) with one count of murder and robbery. A fifth man, 21-year-old Jaquan Murphy, was arrested last week and booked for attempted murder. Murphy is not mentioned in the D.A.’s Office’s press release.
Walker, Rodgers, and the two teenagers have been accused of breaking into a home in the Hollywood Hills where Pop Smoke was staying. Pop Smoke was shot and killed during the alleged break-in, which occurred on February 19, 2020. The rapper was 20 years old.
Representatives for the Pop Smoke Estate offered no comment when reached by Pitchfork.
Pop Smoke released his second mixtape Meet the Woo 2 roughly two weeks before his death. His posthumous debut studio album Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon came out on July 3.
Read Pitchfork’s “Remembering Pop Smoke, Brooklyn Rap’s Key Figure Gone Too Soon.”
