Pop Smoke

Case background and investigation

Bashar Barakah Jackson, the Brooklyn rapper who performed as Pop Smoke, was 20 when he was shot during a break-in at a short-term rental house in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles on February 19, 2020. According to CBS News, several people entered the house in the early morning, at least one of them carrying a handgun, and the emergency call was placed by someone on the East Coast who had been contacted from inside the house. Jackson was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he died.

Courthouse News Service reported that the group is alleged to have found the house through social media posts that revealed where Jackson was staying. According to prosecutors' account as reported by ABC7 and Fox 11 Los Angeles, Corey Walker and a 17-year-old looked over the house on Hercules Drive at about 2:05 a.m., and the group returned shortly after 4 a.m. Prosecutors said Walker supplied a 9mm firearm to one of the juveniles. A Rolex watch, jewelry and a purse were taken, and the watch was later sold for $2,000.

Los Angeles police arrested three men and two juveniles on July 9, 2020, CBS News reported. On July 13, 2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced charges against four of them. Its news release said two men, including Walker, were charged with murder with special-circumstance allegations that the killing occurred during a robbery and a burglary, along with gang and gun allegations, and that two juveniles aged 17 and 15 were each charged with murder and robbery in juvenile court.

By the time the case concluded, local outlets described Walker, who was 19 at the time of the killing, as the only defendant prosecuted as an adult, with three co-defendants dealt with in juvenile court. According to ABC7 and Fox 11, the defendant who was 15 at the time admitted first-degree murder and personally firing the handgun, and is expected to remain in a juvenile facility until he is 25. A second juvenile admitted voluntary manslaughter and home-invasion robbery, and a third admitted home-invasion robbery. Their names were withheld because of their ages. Wikipedia, citing the Los Angeles Times, dates the first of these outcomes to April 2023 and the shooter's admission to May 2023.

Walker pleaded guilty on February 5, 2025, to voluntary manslaughter and two counts of home-invasion robbery and admitted gang and gun allegations, ABC7 and Fox 11 reported. He had originally faced a murder charge carrying a possible sentence of life without parole. On February 21, 2025, he was sentenced to 29 years in state prison. Both outlets reported that one further adult was said to have been involved and that this person's identity has not been released.