Man shot dead at opening of Nipsey Hussle’s restaurant
One person was shot and killed near the opening of a new Nipsey Hussle restaurant in California.
March 1st marked the grand opening of Marathon Burger, a fast food chain founded by the late rapper and his brother, Blacc Sam, in Long Beach.
According to ABC7, an area was blocked off for the opening in downtown Long Beach, with gunshots fired on Broadway near Pine Avenue, which is around half a block from the event.
The shooting took place shortly after 3:30pm as 100s of people came out to support the new Marathon Burger launch.
Three men were taken to a local hospital; one died and the other two were in stable condition as of that night. The investigation is ongoing, with no suspects in custody. It’s unclear whether the shooting is related to the opening of the restaurant.
A Nipsey relative who was in attendance said, “I saw people running. When you see a mass of people running, you know something’s going on, and they ran in one direction, and then the other direction, then somebody said that they heard gunshots.”
He continued, “It was disappointing because I know that Nip, Blacc Sam wanted this to be a happy occasion, so it’s unfortunate that something happened that would bring more attention to the negative elements as opposed to the positive elements.”
The first Marathon Burger opened on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles in March 2025. In a statement at the time, the Marathon brand said, “The Marathon team is excited to expand the brand into the restaurant industry here in LA.”
It continued, “When Nipsey birthed The Marathon, launching it with The Marathon mixtape in 2010, the goal was always to enterprise this into a full lifestyle brand – music, fashion, food/hospitality, and entertainment. This is another step towards reaching Hussle’s vision.”
Nipsey was murdered outside his Marathon Clothing store in Park Mesa Heights, Los Angeles, on March 31st, 2019. He suffered at least 10 gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 33 years old.