BREAKING NEWS: RAPPER POP SMOKE MURDERED IN HOME INVASION

Pop Smoke, a rising New York rapper, was fatally shot in a home in the Hollywood Hills was shot and killed Wednesday morning in what appears to be a home invasion robbery ... reported by TMZ and Los Angeles law enforcement sources confirmed.

The rapper was at a home in the Hollywood Hills around 4:30 AM when two men wearing hoodies and masks broke into a house ... this according to law enforcement sources. We're told the two men fired multiple shots, striking and critically wounding Pop Smoke.

Capt. Jonathan Tippet, who oversees the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division, said three men and two teenage boys likely went to home because of a previous social media post from rapper with address to home. All five are believed to be members of South Los Angeles gang. They stole items but Tippet could not disclose what was taken.

When officers arrived at the $2.5-million home in the 2000 block of Hercules Drive, they found the 20-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Bashar Barakah Jackson, with gunshot wounds.

Pop Smoke was rushed by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood where he was pronounced dead.

Officers detained several people inside the house, but they were later released. Between two and six suspects fled the scene and have not been found, Lurie said.

Walker, 19, and Rodgers, 18, face the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicited. Jaquan Murphy, 21, was also arrested in connection to the incident. Authorities didn’t believe the rapper’s death was related to a robbery. The home where the shooting occurred is owned by Edwin Arroyave and his wife Teddi Mellencam, star of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

Just hours before he was gunned down, Photos and videos on Pop Smoke’s Instagram story showed him posing by the infinity pool in the backyard of the Hollywood Hills home where he was staying and getting a haircut on Tuesday. Later that evening, he posted a photo of the Los Angeles skyline from what appears to be the home’s backyard. Pop Smoke mugged with a pal in a car -- the friend holding a fortune in bills -- in the driveway of the home where he was shot.

Pop Smoke arrived on the rap scene in 2018 with the hit “Welcome to the Party”, a gangsta anthem about shootings, killings and drugs that became a huge sensation. His mixtape “Meet the Woo 2” debuted at No.7 on the Billboard Top 100 albums chart. His major label debut album “Shoot for the Stars Aimt for the Moon,” produced by 50 Cent, topped the Billboard Top 200 albums charts. It featured appearances from Future, Quavo and Da Baby.