Inside the manhunt for suspect in Nipsey Hussle shooting

1/27

Kiara Career, left, and Tadow McReynolds, from Minneapolis, take a selfie at the Nipsey Hussle memorial outside his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

2/27

The growing memorial for Nipsey Hussle outside his Marathon Clothing store in Los Angeles.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

3/27

Herman Douglas, a.k.a. Cowboy, a business partner of Nipsey Hussle, stands behind police tape marking the crime scene as he pays his respect at a makeshift memorial for Hussle on April 2.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

4/27

LAPD officer Jonathan Moreno, left, receives a bouquet from Rochelle Trent, 64, to be placed at a makeshift memorial for Nipsey Hussle on April 2.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

5/27

Nene Vauters, 28, stands behind police crime-scene tape to pay her respects at a makeshift memorial for Nipsey Hussle on April 2.

(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

6/27

L.A. police push back a crowd along Crenshaw Boulevard after a stamped erupted, injuring several people, during a vigil Monday for slain rapper Nipsey Hussle.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

7/27

Law enforcement officials begin to form lines down Slauson Avenue after a stampede at the memorial for rapper Nipsey Hussle.

(Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)

8/27

L.A. push the crowd down Slauson Avenue after a reported stabbing incident at the memorial for rapper Nipsey Hussle.

(Genaro Molina/ Los Angeles Times)

9/27

Fans of rapper Nipsey Hussle pay tribue to the slain star in the parking lot of his Marathon Clothing store in South Los Angeles on Monday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

10/27

An image of Nipsey Hussle rests in a sea of candles as fans of the rapper pay their respects near the Marathon Clothing store in South Los Angeles on Monday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

11/27

Fans of rapper Nipsey Hussle pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in the parking lot of the Marathon Clothing store in South Los Angeles on Monday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

12/27

Jesse Junco, 28, from San Bernardino lights candles Monday morning at one of a few growing memorials in front of the Marathon Clothing store.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

13/27

LaShanna Ayers, right, whose grandson is a godson to Nipsey Hussle, is comforted in the parking lot where rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

14/27

Marquesa Lawson, 34, right, mourns the shooting death of rapper Nipsey Hussle in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

15/27

A crowd of people gathers at the scene where rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed Sunday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

16/27

Police investigate the scene where rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed in a shooting outside his store that left two others wounded.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

17/27

Hugo Rojas, 17, holds a candle in memory of rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was shot multiple times Sunday in South L.A.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

18/27

Utopia Kates, 27, in green jacket, comforts a friend over the shooting death of rapper Nipsey Hussle outside his clothing store in South Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

19/27

Takiya Taylor, 25, mourns the death of rapper Nipsey Hussle, who was killed in a shooting that wounded two other people outside Hussle’s clothing store in South Los Angeles.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

20/27

“I’m telling you, that was my friend. My friend’s dead. He was my childhood friend,” said Marquesha Lawson, 34, at the scene of rapper Nipsey Hussle’s killing in South L.A. on Sunday.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

21/27

Police cordoned off the scene where rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed in a shooting outside his Marathon Clothing store.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

22/27

A crowd of people looks over the scene near Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard where rapper Nipsey Hussle was killed.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

23/27

People mourn the shooting death of rapper Nipsey Hussle in the Hyde Park neighborhood where Hussle was known as a community leader.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

24/27

Rapper Nipsey Hussle performs in February 2018 at the Hollywood Palladium.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

25/27

Nipsey Hussle performs during the Rolling Loud festival at Exposition Park on Dec. 14, 2018.

(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

26/27

Nipsey Hussle performs at the Hollywood Palladium. He was nominated for a Grammy for his album “Victory Lap.”

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

27/27

Nipsey Hussle, shown at the Hollywood Palladium, was known as much for his work in the community as for his music.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

By Richard WintonStaff Writer

April 3, 2019 9:06 AM PT

The two-day manhunt for the suspect accused of shooting Nipsey Hussle ended on a nondescript street in Bellflower on Tuesday morning.

Eric Holder, 29, is accused of killing the famed rapper and wounding two others Sunday in an attack that shocked Los Angeles and brought widespread mourning.

Here is what we know about the dragnet:

The attack

Hussle was a huge figure in South L.A. A successful rapper, Hussle was also a community activist who was working to revitalize his community and reduce gang violence. He had planned to meet with L.A. police officials this week.

Hussle made no secret of his early life in a street gang, saying in a 2014 interview with YouTube channel Vlad TV that he had joined the Rollin’ 60s, a notorious Crips gang clique, as a teenager.

“We dealt with death, with murder,” he told The Times in 2018. “It was like living in a war zone, where people die on these blocks and everybody is a little bit immune to it. I guess they call it post-traumatic stress, when you have people that have been at war for such a long time. I think L.A. suffers from that because it’s not normal yet we embrace it like it is after a while.”

Just before the shooting, Hussle tweeted: “Having strong enemies is a blessing.”

He was outside his shop on Slauson Avenue when a man approached and opened fire. Hussle was fatally wounded and two others were also shot.

The video

Authorities looked at various videos from local businesses.

Graphic video from a surveillance camera shows a gunman walking up to Hussle and two other men in front of the shop the rapper owned in a Slauson Avenue strip mall. The gunman opens fire, and Hussle falls to the ground as the other men run from the gunfire.

Detectives talked to witnesses as well as people in Hussle’s circle to get a sense of what happened and a possible motive.

On Monday, police identified the suspect as Eric Holder, 29. They urged the public’s help to locate him.

Authorities allege Holder got into a dispute with Hussle on Sunday. After a conversation with Hussle at the store, Holder left, then returned with a handgun, spraying Hussle and two other men with bullets, police said.

The driver

Witnesses had told authorities that after the gunman fatally shot the rapper, he raced into a waiting vehicle and sped away.

On Sunday, police believe this was a getaway car waiting for the gunman.

On Tuesday, a woman who was driving the car turned herself in to authorities.

According to sources, she told police she didn’t know the gunman had just shot Hussle when she picked him up. She was released from custody without charges.

The capture

A resident in Bellflower told authorities a man matching the description of Holder was walking down Artesia Boulevard. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies raced to the scene and found Holder standing in a parking lot of a business.

Confronted by deputies, he offered no resistance and surrendered without incident, according sheriff’s spokeswoman Nicole Nishida.

Holder was handcuffed and searched and put into the back of a sheriff’s cruiser.

Los Angeles police detectives went to the sheriff’s Lakewood station, where they confirmed the man they identified was in fact Holder.

The suspect

Holder was an aspiring rapper. He went by the moniker Fly Mac. His Instagram handle was “ima_god_in_da_streetz.” He sang of body bags, “38 gun blasts” and bloody homicides.

Holder is also believed to be a gang member, LAPD Chief Michel Moore said. But police do not believe the shooting had anything to do with gang rivalries.

Holder was convicted in 2012 of carrying a loaded firearm and was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of probation, court records show.