Samiel Asghedom said he received a call that Nipsey had been shot so rushed over to the Slauson Avenue store, where he found his brother on the ground.
Nipsey Hussle’s brother said he found the rapper as he lay dying in a parking lot outside his Los Angeles business on Sunday.
Samiel Asghedom told the Los Angeles Times he received a call that Nipsey, who was born Ermias Asghedom, had been shot. He rushed to the Slauson Avenue store to find his brother lying on the ground with a bullet wound in his leg and a blood-stained shirt.
His brother, whom he called his best friend, was still breathing when he got there, Asghedom told the paper. He said he arrived before paramedics so a 911 operator talked him through CPR.
It wasn’t until paramedics lifted Nipsey that Asghedom said he realized his brother had been shot in the head and then he started praying.
Asghedom said the Marathon Clothing hires mostly felons, who are banned from carrying guns, and that’s why no one shot back.
“Because of that, the man was able to shoot my brother, start running, realize nobody out there had a gun, stop, turn back around, walk up, shoot my brother two more times, start to run, realize nobody had a gun, nobody was responding, ran back up and shot my brother three more times, shoot him in the head and kicked him in the head and then ran off,” Asghedom told the Los Angeles Times.
In surveillance video of the shooting, the suspect can be seen walking up to Nipsey and opening fire, walking away and then returning to shoot him again at least twice. Two other people were injured as well. The suspect then allegedly ran to a getaway car.
Asghedom told the paper that a paramedic informed him his brother had died, saying, “We tried our hardest.”
Nipsey, 33, died from gunshot wounds to the head and the torso, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
Police have since arrested 29-year-old Eric Holder and charged him with murder and two counts of attempted murder.
On Thursday, Holder pleaded not guilty. Attorney Chris Darden, who was on the prosecution during O.J.’s murder trial, is set to represent Holder, according to CBS Los Angeles.
Nipsey, who earned a Grammy nomination for best rap album earlier this year, was also known for giving back to his Los Angeles community in numerous ways, offering jobs to struggling locals at his businesses around the city, paying for the funerals of victims of gun violence and pouring money into local schools.
“He made something work in an area that was run-down, that people were scared to come to, and he turned it into a landmark,” Asghedom told the paper. “All races. Different states. Many countries. They all come to Crenshaw and Slauson. He was truly the people’s champ.”
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