Two people are hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday with injuries suffered in a stampede at a memorial in Hyde Park for the slain rapper Nipsey Hussle.
One of the critically injured was hurt in vehicle versus pedestrian accident and the second suffered a “penetrating, traumatic injury with cause unknown,” according to Margaret Stewart of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
There were 19 people taken to hospitals who were injured in the stampede, which occurred about 8:10 p.m. Monday in front of The Marathon Clothing store near the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue, where Hussle was gunned down Sunday afternoon.
Two others were seriously hurt and 15 others suffered non-life threatening injuries, Stewart said.
There was no evidence of any gunshot wounds and the majority of injuries people suffered were “trample injuries” sustained as the crowd ran from the scene, she said.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the stampede.
According to NBC4, a fight broke out at the vigil and led to a stabbing.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore tweeted that early reports of a shooting at the location did “not appear to be accurate.”
Police went on a modified tactical alert and officers cleared the parking lot where the memorial was taking place, but some from the crowd lingered nearby more than an hour after the stampede occurred.
A representative from Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office told ABC7 all the candles left at Hussle’s memorial will be moved to one location and Los Angeles Sanitation Bureau workers will be at the scene at 5 a.m. to clean up the debris. The representative said they want to create a location where people can safely mourn Hussle, ABC7 reported.
Hussle, 33, was gunned down in broad daylight around 3:20 p.m. Sunday in the 3400 block of West Slauson Avenue, in front of the store he founded in 2017 near Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles. Two other men were wounded in the shooting.