Nipsey Hussle killing: Suspected gunman pleads not guilty

Hussle, 33, was among three people shot Sunday in front of Marathon Clothing Company, a business he opened in 2017, according to the Los Angeles Times. Authorities on Tuesday arrested Eric Holder, 29, after police identified him as the suspected shooter in the case.

Here are the latest updates:

Update 5:50 p.m. EDT April 4: 

The man charged with killing rapper Nipsey Hussle has pleaded not guilty.

Eric Holder entered the plea during his first court appearance in Los Angeles Thursday. The 29-year-old has been charged with murder and two attempted murder charges over Sunday’s attack on Hussle and two other men outside the rapper’s South Los Angeles clothing store.

Holder was ordered held in lieu of $5 million bail. If convicted, Holder faces life in prison.

Update 4:30 p.m. EDT April 4: The man suspected of killing rapper Nipsey Hussle has been charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder.

Los Angeles County prosecutors filed the charges against 29-year-old Eric Holder, who is set to appear in court Thursday afternoon. He has not yet entered a plea, and it’s not clear whether he has an attorney.

Update 1:50 p.m. EDT April 3: A judge ordered Holder be held in Los Angeles Police Department custody on a $7 million bail, KTTV reported Wednesday.

Police told USA Today that Holder was being held in solitary confinement. Unidentified law enforcement sources told TMZ authorities fear Holder may be targeted behind bars for allegedly killing Hussle. Authorities did not immediately confirm the report.

Holder is expected to be charged with Hussle's killing  and to make his first court appearance in the next two days, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Authorities continue to investigate.

Update 5:30 p.m. EDT April 2: The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed that the suspect in the death of rapper Nipsey Hussle was captured Tuesday afternoon after he was publicly identified earlier in the day.

Holder was reportedly captured in the Bellflower neighborhood in southeast LA, ending a two-day search for the suspected killer.

He was taken into custody after his alleged getaway driver turned herself in to police earlier in the day.

Update 4:40 p.m. EDT April 2: Police have reportedly caught the suspect identified earlier Tuesday in the shooting death of rap star Nipsey Hussle, according to media reports. 

Investigators identified Eric Holder, 29, as the triggerman in the shooting of Hussle.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting officers arrested a man matching the description of Holder in Bellflower around 1:30 p.m.

A woman, who police said was the getaway driver in the attack on Hussle, turned herself in Tuesday afternoon, the Times reported.

Police are also interviewing a man who may be involved in the killing, a law enforcement source told the Times.

Update 12:45 p.m. EDT April 2: Police said an argument between Hussle and the man suspected of killing him, identified early Tuesday as 29-year-old Eric Holder, led to Sunday's shooting.

“We believe this to be a dispute between Mr. Hussle and Mr. Holder,” Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday at a news conference. He declined to elaborate on the substance of the argument, but he stressed that it was “not, to our information, anything relative to rivalries between gangs.”

Two other people were injured after police said Holder opened fire on Hussle outside his store in South Los Angeles.

Moore said investigators believe Hussle and Holder knew one another. He said surveillance footage caught Holder walking up to Hussle and the people he was standing with Sunday outside of his store several times before he left and returned, armed with a handgun.

Holder “purposefully and repeatedly fired, striking and killing Nipsey Hussle as well as striking and injuring the other two” before he ran to a 2016 Chevrolet Cruze parked in an alley adjacent to the shopping mall, Moore said. Police continued searching for the vehicle, license plate No. 7RJD742, on Tuesday. The car’s driver, an unidentified woman, was also being sought.

Officials mourned the loss of Hussle on Tuesday, noting that he was scheduled to meet with police Monday to discuss gang violence.

“He was working closely with this city to transform lives and change lives,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday. “Nipsey Hussle was an artist who touched our city and far beyond the City of Angels.”

Update 11:20 a.m. EDT April 2: The Los Angeles Police Department is expected to provide more details on the investigation into Hussle's death at a news conference around 8:30 a.m. local time Tuesday.

Update 1:25 a.m. EDT April 2:  Police have named a suspect in the death of rapper Nipsey Hussle.

The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted late Monday that Eric Holder, 29, of Los Angeles, is wanted in the killing.

Holder was last seen in a white 2016 Chevy Cruze with four doors and California license plate 7RJD742, police said. An unidentified woman was driving the car, authorities said.

If you have information about Holder’s whereabouts, call homicide investigators at 323-786-5100.

Update 6:45 p.m. EDT April 1: The Los Angeles County coroner determined that rap star Nipsey Hussle died from "a gunshot wound to the head," according to The Los Angeles Times.

As police ask for the public’s help in identifying persons of interest in the Hussle killing, the Times is reporting that police sources said Hussle likely knew his killer.

The newspaper also reported that, while Hussle had gang ties, police don’t believe a gang feud is behind the shooting.

Police are asking anyone with information on Hussle’s shooting death to come forward.

Original report: Witnesses told celebrity website TMZ that they heard multiple shots.

Three people were transported to a nearby hospital, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Two victims were listed in stable condition and one was pronounced dead on arrival.

Hussle posted a cryptic message to social media shortly before the shooting.

“Having strong enemies is a blessing,” he wrote.

Police are investigating the shooting.

Hussle, whose birth name was Ermias Asghedom, was raised in South Los Angeles, and had talked about his early life in a gang during a 2018 interview with the Times.

“I grew up in gang culture,” he said. “We dealt with death, with murder. 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,” he said.

More recently he was involved in community organizing and helped with a local art project.

Hussle has dropped multiple mixtapes since the mid 2000s and was nominated for a Grammy Award this year for his first studio album, “Victory Lap,” but lost to Cardi B.