Pop Smoke’s death certificate is now online and reveals a wealth of information about him. Some of it is personal. We read that Pop Smoke’s birth name was Bashar Barakah Jackson, that he was born in New York in 1999, and that he was of Panamanian descent through his father and Jamaican through his mother (although Pop Smoke himself had lived his whole life in the United States). He had started but not finished college, and had never married.
Of course, the certificate gives us a glimpse into the circumstances of his death, too. His “immediate cause of death” is listed as “gunshot wound to the torso,” with a later clarification that he was “shot by other(s)” on February 19, 2020 — in other words, that his death was not a suicide.
The time of his death is given as 5:12 a.m. If the New York Daily News report is correct that Pop Smoke was shot about 4:30 a.m., this means he clung to life for almost 45 minutes. This was enough time for emergency responders to perform a “left thoracotomy,” defined by the American Lung Association as an incision between the ribs to access the lungs or other organs.
Pop Smoke underwent an autopsy shortly after his death. His remains were then transferred to New York for burial.
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