A1 0 TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2019 LATIMES.COM
ing allegations of a violent
melee at the store. City offi-
cials also have been pressur-
ing Gross to tamp down
crime at the property. Resi-
dents acknowledge that
there is crime in the area, but
attribute it to long-standing
gang issues, not to Hussle’s
store.
Some wonder if a con-
spiracy is afoot to seize the
property and tarnish the leg-
acy of a black man who
sought to uplift his commu-
nity through entrepre-
neurship.
Hussle fought to estab-
lish a foothold there, dodg-
ing police in the early years,
then scraping together
enough money to purchase
it after the landlord tried to
evict him. To locals, the strip
mall has come to embody
the forces Husslebattled in
his own life and that South
L.A. continues to face —
gang crime, encroaching
gentrification and tensions
with law enforcement.
In a recent Instagram
post, Gross said city attor-
neys have been on a crusade
to expel the Marathon
Clothing from the strip mall,
redoubling their efforts after
Hussle’s death with a civil
nuisance abatement investi-
gation.
“They play the long game
and will surely find a way to
[mess with] us,” Gross
wrote. “The Los Angeles city
attorney’s office was trying
to end us. Literally.”
Efforts to evict
The strip mall long had
been known as a Rollin’ 60s
hangout.
Over the years, police
made many arrests there, in-
cluding of Hussle for alleg-
edly resisting an officer in
August 2014. Hussle, whose
legal name was Ermias As-
ghedom, does not appear to
have been charged in the
case, according to court re-
cords.
“He used to sell CDs out
the trunk, be in that parking
lot. They used to try to kick
him out of that lot,” Samiel
Asghedom said at his broth-
er’s memorial service in
April. “Y’all know what we
went through with the police
in that lot.”
The brothers had owned
a T-shirt store there since
- They eventually re-
vamped and renamed it,
opening the Marathon
Clothing in June 2017 to a
throng of fans eager to pur-
chase shirts emblazoned
with “Crenshaw” in cursive.
If you stopped by, you
might have run into Hussle,
who was often there, willing
to pose for selfies and rarely
accompanied by an entou-
rage.
Many in Hussle’s orbit
were Rollin’ 60s Crips, from
employees to acquaintances
who asked him to listen to
their mixtapes, though not
all were actively gangbang-
ing. Hussle and his employ-
ees used their street cred to
clear the parking lot if any-
one was making trouble.
But an incident allegedly
involving Hussle’s family
pushed the then-owners to
start eviction proceedings,
according to documents ob-
tained by The Times.
Aman was punched, hit
over the head with a lead
pipe and stabbed in the back
at the store on Sept. 14, 2018
—resulting in a deep head
laceration, possible trauma-
tic brain injury and vision
loss, according to the evic-
tion notice filed by property
manager E.Y. Song.
Police records show that
Samiel Asghedom was ar-
rested on suspicion of at-
tempted murder in the case.
But within weeks, the L.A.
County district attorney’s
office dropped the charge.
The victim, who was also
a Rollin’ 60, may have arrived
at the store with a gun in-
tending to shoot Samiel As-
ghedom, Deputy Dist. Atty.
Alice Kurs wrote in a memo
explaining why she declined
to prosecute. The beating
may have been done in self-
defense or an attempt to dis-
arm the victim, she wrote.
Multiple witnesses to the
Sept. 14 incident heard gun-
shots, and the victim was
seen on video retrieving an
object from his car before
walking toward the store,
the memo said. Minutes lat-
er, the video showed the vic-
tim being pursued by people
and retreating. He denied he
had a gun and would not say
how the conflict started or
cooperate with the investi-
gation beyond an initial
statement, according to the
memo.
Samiel Asghedom’s at-
torney, James Bryant II, said
the allegations against hisclient were inaccurate but
would not elaborate. Song,
the property manager, could
not be reached for comment.
Soon after the parking lot
beating, according to docu-
ments obtained by The
Times, City Atty. Mike
Feuer’s office notified own-
ers Jong Soo Lee and Ho
Haeng Lee that their prop-
erty was a gathering spot for
the Rollin’ 60s. In a follow-up
letter on Nov. 15, 2018, Deputy
City Atty. Nancy Hagan
wrote that she was expect-
ing the owners to implement
remedial measures, includ-
ing assigned parking spaces
and surveillance cameras
accessible only to law en-
forcement.
By the time the eviction
notice arrived on Nov. 14,
Hussle and Gross had begun
trying to buy the strip mall —
home to a barbershop, fish
market, tax preparation of-
fice, insurance agency and
mom-and-pop fast-food
joint, in addition to the Mar-
athon Clothing. The owners
initially rebuffed their over-
turesbut eventually decided
to sell, Gross said.
Gross, who is African
American and has roots in
South L.A., told The Times
late last month that he and
Hussle worked for months to
secure a loan — a process
complicated by Hussle’s
criminal record, which in-cluded several gun convic-
tions. The $2.5-million sale
was finalized in January of
this year.
“I don’t know how we did
it, but we were able to close
and get the lot,” Samiel As-
ghedom said at his brother’s
memorial service. “Nip put
his heart and soul on Cren-
shaw and Slauson.”
The sale, however, did
not stop the city attorney’s
office from pushing for ac-
tion.
In a Feb. 13 letter, Hagan
notified Gross and Hussle
that criminal activity at the
strip mall was creating a
public nuisance.
The property “has been
the site of many violent and/
or unlawful incidents includ-
ing, without limitation, at-
tempted murder, shootings,
robberies, batteries and un-
lawful firearm possession,”
Hagan said in requesting a
meeting with the new own-
ers. If Hussle and Gross did
not address the alleged il-
legal activity, city attorneys
could file a civil enforcement
action, the letter said.
Gross said in his recent
Instagram post that the city
attorney’s office “hated
(with ALL their heart) that
their maniacal zeal to expel
the Marathon Store from
Slauson Plaza actually re-
sulted in us buying it and
planning to develop it.”A spokesman for the city
attorney’s office declined to
comment on what he termed
an “ongoing investigation.”
Gross told The Times
that any criminal activity in
the area is a symptom of
long-term governmental
dysfunction. Some residents
also say the reports of vi-
olence are exaggerated and
unfairly stigmatize gang
members.
“This is 50 years of poor
social, economic and police
policies,” he said. “Don’t
make it about the Marathon
store and Nipsey. It hurts
Nip’s legacy.”Security concerns
On the afternoon of
March 31, Hussle was out-
side his store with longtime
friend and employee Her-
man “Cowboy” Douglas
when a man named Eric
Holder approached.
Holder, a Rollin’ 60, had
not been seen in the neigh-
borhood for some time. Hus-
sle warned Holder to be
careful because people were
labeling him a snitch, ac-
cording to Douglas’ grand
jury testimony. Holder, an
aspiring rapper, asked if
Hussle had listened to his
new song. Hussle said he
had not.
Holder then left, re-
turned and, according to
prosecutors, shot Hussle at
least 10 times. Two other
men were injured.
The thousands of mourn-
ers who flooded into the
Marathon parking lot after-
ward eventually thinned.
But fans from Seattle,
Texas, Canada and else-
where keep showing up at
Slauson and Crenshaw.
“It inspires me to be bet-
ter at my schoolwork, to be
like him,” said Ahmad Allen,
11, who was visiting from
Philadelphia recently.
After Hussle’s death, the
L.A. Police Department
stepped up its presence at
the parking lot. On July 8,
Police Chief Michel Moore
wrote to Gross, requesting a
meeting to discuss how to
make the property safer af-
ter what he described as
calls to the police reporting
assaults, batteries and
shootings.
Al Labrada, commander
of the LAPD’s South Bu-
reau, met with Gross later
that month to discuss light-
ing, cameras and other safe-
ty measures.
Media reports that the
LAPD was leading a crimi-
nal investigation into Hussle
are not accurate, Labrada
said. Police did not have a
problem with Hussle’s store,
he said, only with the people
hanging around outside.
But Labrada added that
the parking lot’s popularity
was “one of the reasons that
resulted in the murder of
Nipsey Hussle.”Suspicions grow
Across Slauson from the
Marathon store on a recent
night, Hussle’s songs blared
from speakers as Adrena
Hodge sold tacos from a
sidewalk stand. Hodge, who
is from the neighborhood
and knew Hussle, said police
were often at the parking lot,
so there was no danger to
tourists who were coming to
“show love and respect.”
Tony Broomfield, the
owner of the taco stand and
a member of the 57 Neigh-borhood Crips, said Hussle’s
music gave him hope when
he was at a low point in jail.
“We don’t want this man’s
property, everything he
worked for, to be torn down
and destroyed over some-
body’s allegations,” he said.
Shamond “Lil AD” Ben-
nett, a member of the Rollin’
60s, said it is suspicious that
city officials are trying to tar-
nish Hussle’s legacy.
“They’re not causing no
trouble,” he said of his fellow
gang members visiting the
parking lot. “If the world can
come do it, why is it that peo-
ple who grew up around here
can’t do it?”
Since Hussle’s death,
complaints from residents
have centered on tourists
blocking driveways or
speeding on side streets, not
on crime in the parking lot,
said Kahllid Al-Alim, presi-
dent of the Park Mesa
Heights Community Coun-
cil.
With construction of a
new Metro line underway
nearby, Al-Alim said he be-
lieves powerful interests are
trying to seize the property
for their own aims — a com-
mon if unproven fear in
South L.A. amid rising prop-
erty values.
“The homies are going to
hang out at a store,” Al-Alim
said. “That’s going to hap-
pen. But there’s no gang-
banging activity and there’s
no criminal activity.”
City Councilman
Marqueece Harris-Dawson,
who represents this part of
South L.A., said the city at-
torney typically initiates nui-
sance abatement investiga-
tions after numerous com-
plaints. He said his office has
not received calls from resi-
dents about the parking lot,
nor has a pattern emerged
from police reports that
would peg it as a hotbed of
crime.
The night before the
fence was erected, young
men stood in the parking lot
in clusters of twos and
threes. They said they did
not want to speak with
mainstream authorities, in-
cluding the media. But they
emphasized that they had
no intention of harming visi-
tors.
“You were greeted nicely,
weren’t you?” one said to a
Times reporter.
SkippTownsend, a sen-
ior figure among L.A. gang
interventionists, said he
wants the Marathon park-
ing lot to be a place where lo-
cal people, including gang
members, can gather and
help each other — and to cel-
ebrate milestones such as
Hussle’s birthday on Thurs-
day.
The community has “al-
ready been victimized by a
horrible shooting,” Town-
send said. “What we need is
to heal, not to be put in jail
cells or displaced.”
After the fence went up,
tourists expressed disap-
pointment that they could
not set foot on the parking
lot, making do with selfies in
front of a mural of Hussle
with angel wings.
Hussle’s brother, Samiel,
said he hopes the lot will one
day become a fitting legacy.
“Nipsey Hussle Tower
will inspire and show the
people that even though you
come from nothing you can
achieve greatness,” he told
The Times.More trouble brewing on Hussle’s lot
AFANat a Nipsey Hussle mural near the South L.A. strip mall he owned. Its parking lot, known as a Rollin’ 60s hangout, is slated to become Nipsey Hussle Tower.
Allen J. SchabenLos Angeles TimesSINCE HUSSLE’Sdeath, complaints from residents have focused on tourists
blocking driveways, not on crime in the parking lot, a community leader says.Allen J. SchabenLos Angeles TimesIN FEBRUARY, the city attorney’s office told Hussle that criminal activity at the
strip mall was creating a public nuisance. Above, a procession for Hussle.Gary CoronadoLos Angeles Times[Hussle,from A1]