Los Angeles-based hip-hop artist Half Ounce was on the phone with his pregnant wife when he was fatally shot on Oct. 3.

His death comes less than ten days after the shooting death of Kee Riches in Compton and 21 days following the murder of Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock during a robbery at a South L.A. Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, L.A. Taco reported.

Half Ounce, 36, whose real name is Lataurissha O’Brien, was shot and killed on the streets of L.A.’s Koreatown around 11:30 pm.

Police ultimately found O’Brien in an apartment building’s planter with multiple gunshot wounds after searching the area for a shooting victim, CBS reported. Half Ounce, a father of three, was walking on the street following a shift at his job with UPS.

According to law enforcement officials, two people in a dark SUV are suspected of driving up to the victim, before an adult male passenger exited the vehicle to open fire on him, before getting back in and fleeing the scene, The Los Angeles Times reported.

Half Ounce has been posting his music and videos to Instagram and YouTube for over five years and has a social media following of more 14,000. His songs center around the L.A. gangster lifestyle, heavy on Bloods-affiliations. From the area of Inglewood, Half Ounce is said to be a member of the Piru gang. The Pirus are a street gang alliance founded in 1969 and based in Southern California.

In an early track titled “My Whole Life,” Half Ounce rhymes, “F***ing with the M.O.B. since I was 19, n**gaz hit me with a job, turn it to a crime scene, I was out catchin’ bodies while you was playing ball.” Among his collaborations with other area artists is a track called “Gangbangin’” with rapper P. Thrizzle, aka Baby Halfpint, a local musician believed to be the first Filipino-American member of the Neighborhood Pirus gang, L.A. Taco reported.

Half Ounce was due to release a new single called “Drop the Ball” in ten days. 

Los Angeles remains one of the deadliest U.S. cities for rappers, with artists like Drakeo, Slim 400, PnB Kee Riches, Half Ounce all killed between 2021 and 2022. These murders are added to a death toll that includes industry legends like Biggie Smalls and Nipsey Hussle, who were all killed in L.A., L.A. Taco reported.

Half Ounce, screenshot from video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_xg5nW8fcg