murder at the bank of california stadium... lapd first filipino american deputy

Stadium by Jackson Roberts

Last Saturday, West Coast rapper Drakeo the Ruler was fatally wounded in an altercation just before his performance at the Once Upon a Time Festival held at Banc of America Stadium at Exposition Park.

Twenty-eight-year-old Drakeo, whose real name was Darrell Caldwell, was admired by many for his lyrical talents. After years of being in trouble with the law for felony crimes and recently being released from jail in 2020, he had made public statements about getting his life in order. Focused and now performing in front of thousands of people, he was looking forward to a promising career and a chance to leave his gangster feuds behind him.

Amongst his peers, with fans awarding him the title of LAs face of Hip Hop, Drakeo was headed towards major fame and stardom.

On this day, Drakeo would share the stage with over 50 of West Coast Hip Hop’s biggest legends, including the show’s co-producer Snoop Dogg, along with 50cent, Ice Cube, Too Short, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Cypress Hill, and Parliament-Funkadelic.

However, police are now hinting that the rapper may have been ambushed.

Right before Drakeo was to perform, a huge fight broke out around 8:30 p.m. Video shows Drakeo caught in a scuffle in the roadway behind the staging area while trying to escape a melee of punches.

While members of his entourage managed to escape through an opening in the fence, Drakeo is seen being dragged back into the brawl, where he’s jumped by a crowd of men only to sustain a fatal wound to the neck with a sharp object.

Officers from the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and Los Angeles Fire Department responded.

Drakeo wa transported to the local hospital, where he would later die from his injuries.

Live Nation decided to end the concert early. Snoop Dogg stated publicly; he left the premises immediately following the cancellation.

As concertgoers took to social media, more eyewitness accounts were made public. Some tweets and posts claimed the event, peppered with rival gang affiliates, was a potential powder keg with long waits in line for food and beverage, unscrutinized covid protocols, and areas with latent gaps in security.

Others claimed they felt safe, were honored by the concept, and the opportunity to witness such legendary performers, United by p three separate stages that, for the most part, from 11am to 8:30pm, went on without incident.

Commander Graham will become the first Filipino-American Deputy Chief in the Los Angeles Police Department’s history.

Commander Graham was born in Manhattan, New York, and came to California when he was a teenager. His family moved to the San Fernando Valley in the City of Los Angeles. After high school, he attended Los Angeles Valley College. In 1992, he was elected President of the Student Union.

He became the president and chief lobbyist for the California Students Association of Community Colleges, representing the nearly quartermillion community college students in the 14 campuses of the Southern California Region.

During his final semester at Los Angeles Valley College, he went to work at the Campus Police Office and discovered a new way to serve his community.

The experience of working around police officers led Commander Graham to join the Los Angeles Police Department in November 1995.

Commander Graham has worked in all four bureaus of the Department and has taken on numerous assignments.

He was part of the architect team that revamped the Safer Cities Initiative (SCI) in Skid Row to the Resources Enhancement Services and Enforcement Team (RESET), creating a template for the CityWide creation of the Homeless Outreach and Proactive Engagement (HOPE) team.

At HOPE, Commander Graham worked with numerous government and private agencies to stem the tide of violent crime against people experiencing homelessness.

On December 25, 2016, Commander Graham was transferred to North Hollywood Area and promoted to Area Commanding Officer.

During his two and a half years at North Hollywood, he worked with a strong leadership and supervisory team, a supportive community, and strong volunteer corps, as well as a staff of hard-working and dedicated officers who presided over two straight years of crime reduction.

On July 31, 2019, Commander Graham became the first Filipino-American to be sworn in as a Los Angeles Police Commander. He was appointed by Chief Moore to be the Department’s Homeless Coordinator under the Office of Operations.

Commander Graham is currently the Commander of Transit Services Group.