Pop Smoke was reportedly the focus of a gang-related investigation before his death, according to a former NYPD police chief.
In a new interview on The John Rondi Show, John Chell revealed he was “personally involved” in the case, which tied into several Brooklyn gangs Pop Smoke was allegedly “down with,” including the G-Stone Crips. Chell said Pop Smoke drew the NYPD’s attention as his fame began to skyrocket.
“He’s the up and coming star, if you will, and we were into that gang, and he was part of it, but we didn’t have much on Pop,” Chell explained (around the 5:55 mark in the video below).
The former police chief said their biggest break came in 2019, when Pop allegedly brought a stolen Rolls-Royce Wraith from California to New York.
“We made an arrest, and we tried to leverage that,” Chell explained, noting that authorities often use this approach when they believe rising artists are still connected to gangs. “You might be running with the gang guys, and they’re your friends,” he said. “But you got a lot more to lose. You got millions, you’re a rising star.”
Before the NYPD could move forward with a larger investigation, Pop Smoke was shot and killed during a home invasion in Los Angeles in February 2020. “As we were cultivating this whole gang case, I believe he got murdered,” Chell said. He also remembered Pop Smoke’s “very distinct sound — didn’t he? It really was.”
The 20-year-old’s death shook his hometown of Canarsie for a long time. “Years after that, there was always a Pop Smoke Day in Canarsie,” Chell said. “We had to put a lot of cops there because a lot of gang members showed up. It got dangerous.”
