A day after rapper PnB Rock was gunned down as he enjoyed lunch at a Los Angeles restaurant, local authorities said Tuesday an ill-timed Instagram post from his girlfriend may have led his killer to him.
The rapper, legally named Rakim Allen, was robbed and shot to death on Monday afternoon at Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles. Controversy around his slaying spread immediately, with many—including rappers Kodak Black and Nicki Minaj—blaming the 30-year-old’s girlfriend, Stephanie Sibounheuang, because she posted a geo-tagged Instagram story of their meal.
Cops confirmed Tuesday the ill-timed post may have played a part in Allen’s death.
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Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said the attack came “soon” after Sibounheuang posted a picture of the couple’s food at Roscoe’s, and detectives believe it may be what flagged Allen’s killer to his location.
“With his family—with his girlfriend or some kind of friend of his—and as they’re there, enjoying a simple meal, he’s brutally attacked by an individual who apparently [came] to the location after a social media posting,” Moore said Tuesday.
Allen’s assailant ran into the chicken joint and demanded Allen give him jewelry and “other valuables,” Moore said, before pulling the trigger. The gunman then fled in a getaway car.
Allen, a father of two girls, was pronounced dead Monday evening, cops said. Those involved in his killing had not been identified or arrested as of Tuesday evening.
Sibounheuang first deleted the post of the couple’s chicken and waffles from her story, then later deactivated her personal Instagram account altogether. Her business profile, however, was still active Tuesday, and was attracting hundreds of hateful comments by the minute.
Allen and Sibounheuang had a baby girl in 2020 and had been together ever since, social media posts show. But instead of peacefully mourning her partner’s loss on Tuesday, the 31-year-old fashion designer had become the scapegoat to many.
The hateful comments haven’t just come from internet randoms. Florida rapper Kodak Black, who once collaborated with Allen and claimed to have spoken with him Sunday night, posted to his Instagram story that Sibounheuang “might as well kill herself.”
Joining Kodak was Nicki Minaj, who tweeted: “There’s no way we as rappers or our loved ones are still posting locations to our whereabouts. To show waffles & some fried chicken?”
Allen’s slaying was the latest in a spate of killings of rappers.
Just down the road from Monday’s crime scene, Brooklyn rapper Pop Smoke was killed in a Feb. 2020 home invasion. Cops said then, too, that social media posts—of a black gift bag tagged with his address—led killers to his location.
Other slayings include the shooting of Young Dolph last November in his hometown Memphis, as well the killing of Nipsey Hussle in 2019 in Los Angeles.
A week before he fell victim to it himself, Allen acknowledged Los Angeles’ violence against musicians in a Sept. 2 episode of the podcast “Off the Record with DJ Akademiks.”
He spoke about an attempted robbery he was a victim of at the height of the pandemic while he was out with Sibounheuang and their daughter. He said criminals in Los Angeles were more bold than those in his native Philadelphia and it made him fearful.
“Where I’m from, we like sneaky criminals,” Allen said. “In L.A. … they bold.”
“That’s why I feel like L.A.’s spooky, man,” Akademiks, the podcast host, responded. “It’s just so bold. I’m seeing mad videos, like they don’t even do it at night. Like night maybe, but broad daylight, that’s when they really do it.”
Allen said he’d been extra cautious ever since his brother was killed, making one of his last public comments an eerie one.
“It’s just been something in me that just let me know, like this shit is real life,” Allen said. “I done seen people die. I done been around people that died…. Anybody can die.”
