Police fire rubber bullets during XXXTentacion memorial event in LA: report
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rapper XXXTentacion died on June 18 after a shooting. He was 20. (Facebook)
Police in Los Angeles late Tuesday reportedly used rubber bullets to break up a crowd that staged an impromptu memorial for slain rapper XXXTentacion.
The rapper was gunned down as he left an upscale motor sports dealership in Florida on Monday afternoon.
RAPPER XXXTENTACION DEAD AT 20 AFTER SHOOTING
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Nearly 500 people gathered on Melrose Avenue to celebrate the 20-year-old rapper’s life. The impromptu memorial was without a permit, PageSix reported. At one point, police were reportedly forced to use rubber bullets and pepper balls to break up the crowd. There were no reports of injuries or arrests. Authorities said the crowd was throwing objects at them, ABC-7 reported.
Hundreds of people mourning the rapper took over a central Los Angeles neighborhood. (Fox 11 LA)
Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of people surrounded slain rapper XXXTentacion’s mother at a vigil in Florida. Fans, friends and family gathered to mourn the rapper known as “X,” The Sun Sentinel reported. His given name was Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy.
The rapper's brief career was marked by controversy. In 2016, he was arrested on charges including home invasion for a 2015 incident, and less than a month later was jailed on charges that he attacked his girlfriend, Geneva Ayala, who was pregnant at the time.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ayala said she was kicked out of the vigil, and that the items she left for him were burned, which included roses, candles and a globe.
Fans and mourners of rap singer XXXTentacion pause by a memorial, Tuesday, June 19, 2018, outside Riva Motorsports in Deerfield Beach, Fla., where the troubled rapper-singer was killed the day before. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)
The Associated Press contributed to this report