The LAPD are still investigating an officer involved shooting that took place Friday evening at Crenshaw and Slauson in South Los Angeles. The LAPD had been responding to a fight between Los Angeles based rapper Ermias “Nipsey Hussle” Asghedom, 25, and his former manager Eugene “Big U” Henley.
The two were once close business partners when the rapper signed with Cinematic/Epic records in 2007. Plans to release his first studio album, South Central State of Mind, were to follow after his three mixtapes from the series Bullets Aint Got No Name were an instant hit on the underground, but that album was never released.
This evening the two men got into physical altercation near the alley at the rear of the Shell gas station at Crenshaw and Slauson in Hyde Park. According to eye witnesses, Nipsey’s brother, Samiel Asghedom pulled out a gun to defend his brother and fired into the air to end the conflict. That’s when an LAPD officer arrived on the scene and fired at the brother, missing him.
According to LAPD Sergeant Ron Lopez, no one was hit and five people were taken into custody. Sgt. Lopez told streetgangs.com that no one has been booked yet, so the names of those five individuals have not been released, but we know that Henley, Nipsey and his brother were taken into custody Friday night and are being held at LAPD’s 77th Division.
Henley is the executive director of Developing Options, a non-profit community revitalization team dedicated to empowering youth from underprivileged communities in South LA.