A California rapper by the name J $tash allegedly shot his girlfriend to death in front of her three kids before he turned the gun on himself. The fatal incident happened on Saturday, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said officers found the bodies of the 27-year-old victim and the shooter after they responded to a domestic violence report, PEOPLE reported.
“The female victim sustained multiple gunshot wounds, while the male victim sustained an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” deputies said.
The rapper reportedly shot the victim multiple times after an argument they were having escalated. He locked himself and the woman in the home’s master bedroom before shooting her and turning the gun on himself, authorities said.
The responding officers also found the woman’s three children in the home. The minors, who are aged from 5 to 11, weren’t harmed. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s department confirmed the suspected shooter was J $tash, per PEOPLE. The 28-year-old rapper’s real name is Justin Joseph. The female victim was, however, not identified.
“Right now, the evidence at the scene and the preliminary information we have from the children in the home is that it’s a murder-suicide,” Lt. Derrick Alfred told KTLA.
One of the deceased woman’s children called authorities to report the incident, the Associated Press reported. That was after their grandmother told them to call 911 after the minor phoned her. But it is unclear if the 911 call came in before or after the suspected shooter opened fire.
Lt. Alfred also told the news outlet that the rapper and the victim had been dating for about a year. The suspected shooter was, however, not the father of any of the three children.
