Nipsey Hussle’s shooter has been apprehended by California police Tuesday afternoon and is in custody. Eric Holder, 29, was apprehended and placed into custody 20 miles southeast of Los Angeles CBS reported according to LA County Sheriff’s deputies.
Charges against Holder were not announced yet, and the arrest came just hours after LAPD policeman Michel Moore implored him to surrender.
The gunman suspected of killing Nipsey Hussle had a personal dispute with the rapper that did not involve gang activity, the Los Angeles police chief said Tuesday as he urged the man to surrender.
Hussle and the suspect, 29-year-old Eric Holder, knew each other, Chief Michel Moore said, but he did not reveal how they were acquainted or offer any details about the dispute.
Hussle was fatally shot Sunday outside his South Los Angeles clothing store. Moore said Holder repeatedly approached Hussle and talked with him before returning with a gun and opening fire. Holder then fled in a waiting car driven by a woman, the police chief said.
Moore, speaking at a news conference that was being broadcast live, said he was confident that Holder was watching. “I ask you to surrender,” he said.
The police chief and the president of the city’s Police Commission had been scheduled to meet with Hussle on Monday to discuss the relationship between the police force and the inner city.
Moore said he was devastated when he learned Hussle had been killed.
Mayor Eric Garcetti said Hussle’s killing occurred during a surge of gun violence, and he announced plans to deploy new resources to roll it back.
A fight apparently broke out Monday night at a memorial for Hussle, and a stampede ensued, leaving at least 19 people hurt, including two who were taken to hospitals in critical condition. Dozens of police officers cleared the memorial site.
At least one of the critically injured persons was struck by a car, and the other one had a “penetrating injury,” although it was unclear whether that person was stabbed or cut by broken glass, a fire department spokeswoman said.
Two other people suffered serious injuries and 15 had injuries that were considered non-life threatening.
An autopsy completed Monday showed that Hussle, 33, died after being shot in the head and torso. The rapper, whose real name was Ermias Asghedom, had recently purchased the strip mall where the shop is located and planned to redevelop it into a mixed-use commercial and residential complex.
The plan was part of Hussle’s broader ambitions to remake the neighborhood where he grew up and attempt to break the cycle of gang life that lured him in when he was younger.
David Blaine Sexual Assault Claims
David Blaine denies sexual assault allegations under investigation in New York City and intends to cooperate with authorities, his publicist said in a statement Tuesday.
New York police confirmed Monday that the magician is under investigation, following a Daily Beast report that the department had taken statements from two women accusing Blaine of sexual assault.
Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea, speaking at an unrelated news conference, declined to discuss any details about Blaine’s case and wouldn’t say whether police had sought to interview him.
“David denies the accusations that have been reported and he takes these allegations seriously,” the statement from Blaine’s publicist said. “He intends to cooperate with any investigation.”
The Daily Beast, citing unnamed sources, said one of Blaine’s accusers alleges he attacked her inside his Manhattan apartment in 1998, which may fall outside the statute of limitations.
The Daily Beast had previously reported that a former model alleged Blaine raped her in London in 2004, an allegation he denied. Scotland Yard detectives later declined to take further action after investigating her claim, the news website said.
Blaine, 45, is known for stunts like being buried underground for a week without food or water in New York in 1999. He also lived in a plexiglass case suspended 30 feet (9 meters) above the Thames River in London for more than 40 days in 2003.
Blaine is scheduled to start a tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland in June, according to his website.
In a separate statement about the New York City case, the NYPD said Monday it “takes sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors.”
The master illusionist first rose to fame in 1999 when he was buried in a plexiglass coffin under a three-ton water-filled tank for seven days. Since then, Blaine has encased himself in a six-ton block of ice in Times Square for 58 hours, stood atop a flagpole for 35 hours and spent 44 days suspended in a glass box in London.
Blaine is scheduled for a European tour that kicks off in June.
Jack Montague Moves Ahead With Yale Lawsuit
A federal judge has ruled that a former Yale basketball captain who was expelled for sexual misconduct that he denies can move forward with his lawsuit against the university.
U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello, in a ruling released Monday, denied Yale’s motion to throw out many of Jack Montague’s claims, including that a Title IX officer improperly coerced the woman involved to cooperate with the school’s complaint that led to his February 2016 expulsion.
“Jack Montague has always maintained that his expulsion from Yale in February 2016 – at the very moment he and the Yale basketball team were about to head to the NCAA tournament, and just three months before he was to be awarded the degree which he had all but earned – was the result of an unfair and biased disciplinary process which had been programed from the start to result in his dismissal,” said Montague’s attorney, Max Stern. “Now a federal judge, having made a thorough review, has rejected Yale’s claims that Montague lacks evidence to support his case.”
Montague was expelled after that woman testified before Yale’s Unified Committee on Sexual Misconduct that much of a 2014 sexual encounter with the player was not consensual. No criminal charges were ever brought.
Yale’s attorneys have said the woman, identified only as Jane Roe, made it clear that she did not want to have intercourse and that the school and its officials acted appropriately.
Montague’s lawsuit alleges the woman only agreed to cooperate with Yale’s complaint after a Title IX officer informed her that Montague had received sensitivity training in another case. His lawyers contend that is a violation of the school’s own confidentiality rules.
That earlier case had involved an argument in which Montague allegedly shoved a folded paper plate down a woman’s top.
Montague also argues that his accuser was allowed to give a lengthy, emotional statement to the committee, while he was denied a similar opportunity.
“The court concludes that there are issues of material fact with regard to whether Yale violated their own procedures by allowing Roe full participation in the hearing, even though she was not the complainant,” Covello wrote.
The judge tossed out several of Montague’s arguments, including that the school’s actions in both cases were the result of a bias against him as a man.
Yale said in a statement that it is pleased “that the court ruled Yale did not discriminate against Jack Montague and that he cannot pursue several other claims from his lawsuit.”
Montague, who had been seeking readmission to the school, went on to attend Belmont University in Tennessee. His lawsuit also seeks monetary damages.
No trial date has been set.