Dolla Shooting Suspect Held on $1 Million Bail

Armed 23-year-old Georgia man arrested at LAX after witnesses spot him fleeing L.A. mall where rapper was gunned down

A suspect is in custody in the rap shooting that jolted Los Angeles—and the music world—on Monday.

Atlanta-based rapper Dolla was gunned down Monday afternoon while waiting in the valet area of the Beverly Center, a popular upscale L.A. mall.

The 21-year-old up-and-comer, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, was in town to finish recording his debut album, Another Day, Another Dolla, due out this summer.

He was accompanied to the mall by local rapper D.J. Shabbaz and fellow Jive artist Scrapp DeLeon, when, shortly after 3 p.m., Dolla got into an altercation with a man and woman and was shot in the head. He was transported to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, just a few blocks away, where he died.

Roughly an hour later, police had a suspect in custody.

LAPD detained 23-year-old Aubrey Louis Berry at Los Angeles International Airport after noticing that the Georgian met the description of the shooter. He was allegedly armed with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. His silver Mercedes SUV, which matched witness descriptions of the vehicle that fled the scene of the shooting, was recovered in an airport parking lot.

Berry's bail has since been set at $1 million.

Two other persons of interest, a man and woman, have been questioned in connection to the shooting but not charged.

Police say they have no idea what sparked the fatal confrontation. There are reports that the beef started earlier when Dolla and the couple arrived at LAX, and that the couple reportedly had been trailing the rapper.

Dolla's publicist, Sue Vannasing, said a funeral service for the rapper will take place in Atlanta and be announced shortly.

Dolla had a minor hit with "Feelin' Myself," which was included on the soundtrack to 2006's Step Up, and also briefly modeled for Diddy's Sean John clothing line. He was signed to Akon's Konvict Music Records in 2007.

"He had a very promising career," Vannasing told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "He was being hyped as the next Tupac. He chose music to get off the streets."

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