Rapper Lil Pooh Killed In Drive-By Shooting on San Francisco Bay Bridge

Lil Pooh, a rapper and concert promoter from Texas, was shot to death on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge early Monday morning, and the motive may have been work-related, police say.

Darryl Stinnette Jr., 31, was visiting San Francisco on business when he was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting on the bridge around 2:30 a.m. Monday, according to the Associated Press.

Another person inside the vehicle Stinnette was traveling in was also shot, and a third suffered injuries as the result of a multiple-vehicle collision after the shooting, the AP reports.

The driver of a third vehicle traveling near Stinnette’s at the time of the shooting heard a gunshot just before an SUV swerved and crashed into his car, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. A third vehicle, likely the one carrying the shooter, sped off.

The driver of the car that was struck by Stinnette’s, Raul Lopez, said he rendered first aid to Stinnette’s companions, but that Lil Pooh himself was dead in the driver’s seat.  

"They were freaking out," Lopez told the Chronicle, referring to the injured passengers. "One guy had blood on his face. The guy in the back was wounded. One man was in shock. He wasn't in his senses." 

“It was crazy — to be in the cross fire was crazy,” Lopez, a 35-year-old professional videographer, added.

Reached by phone Tuesday morning in Texas, Stinnette's mother, Toni Barnes, told KTVU TV, the local FOX 5 affiliate, that her son went by the nickname "Pooh" because that’s what she called him as a baby. He was "such a fat little one. He was my Pooh Bear. That's the name everyone knew him by.

“Some friends didn't even know his real name,” Barnes added. “He was so sweet, humble and kind. If anyone really knows my son, he was the sweetest, kindest person and always respectful."

Barnes has no idea what her son was killed, but she said he had traveled to San Francisco to promote his music.

Law enforcement sources who spoke with KTVU said Stinnette and his passengers had been at a club in San Francisco before the shooting, and that outside that club an hour-and-half before Stinette was shot two men inside a white Mercedes opened fire on the club.

While its unclear who the shooters’ target was, the police sources said, they suspect a music-related link between the two shootings.

No official authority informed Barnes or her her husband about their son’s death. Instead, Barnes said she learned of it from her nephew, who saw it on social media, according to KTVU.