(Reuters) - Bay Area rapper “The Jacka” was fatally shot in Oakland on Monday night, police said on Tuesday.
Officers on patrol heard gunshots shortly after 8 p.m. on Monday in East Oakland and found 37-year-old Dominic Newton, who performs as "The Jacka," suffering from a gunshot wound, Oakland police said in a written statement.
Newton was treated at the scene and then taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
No arrests had been made in the case as of Tuesday morning. No other details were immediately provided by police.
A man who described himself as a friend of Newton told KNTV news in the Bay Area that Newton was shot while rapping with friends in a van.
“Bullets don’t have no name. I don’t now who did it,” Reggie Grant, 51, told the station. “He had problems with nobody. He’d give you his shoes off his feet. He gave jobs to lots of people.”
Newton, who converted to Islam as a boy, also went by the name Shaheed Akbar before adopting "The Jacka" as a stage name.
Newton debuted in 1999 with the group Mob Figaz on the album “C-Bo’s Mob Figaz, which reached No. 63 on the Billboard Hip Hop chart, before releasing solo albums including “Jacka of the Mob Figaz” in 2001, “Tear Gas” in 2009 and “What Happened To The World” last year.
His death quickly brought reaction from the music industry and others. Wu-Tang Clan rapper Raekwon tweeted out: “R.I.P the Jacka,” and offered his condolences to Newton's family and friends.
Portland Trailblazers guard Damian Lillard tweeted: “Life was taken tonight IN OAKLAND. Got to do better toward our own man.”
(Reporting by Michael Fleeman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Eric Walsh)