Indian Red Boy: Killed on Instagram Live After the Nipsey Mural Disrespect

Añadido: 2026-05-06

[00:00:06]Damn, about that fool.

[00:00:08]I got these I GOT THESE.

[00:00:13]NOW to breaking news, a homicide investigation underway right now in Hawthorne.

[00:00:18]Jeff and Susie, we're off of Chandron Avenue in the city of Hawthorne and you can see Hawthorne PD they are wrapping up their investigation. They're still taking some photographs.

[00:00:27]There's a male in his 20s that was shot and killed inside this car. There are a lot of bullet holes inside that windshield. We zoomed in earlier.

[00:00:34]Around 4:00 on a Thursday afternoon in July of 2021, Hawthorne Police Department [music] received a call that would shake social media to its core.

[00:00:45]Shots fired behind a gated apartment complex on Chadron Avenue.

[00:00:50]When officers arrived, they found a 21-year-old man slumped over in the front seat of his car, struck multiple times in the head.

[00:00:59]His phone was still running.

[00:01:01]Instagram live was still broadcasting.

[00:01:04]And thousands of viewers had just watched him die in real time.

[00:01:08]His name was Zareil De'shon Rivera, but the streets knew him as Indian Red Boy.

[00:01:14]One moment, he was laughing with his friend Capone on a live stream.

[00:01:19]The next, he looked up, muttered "What the F?"

[00:01:23]and the glass of his driver's side window exploded inward.

[00:01:27]His last words were "Get help."

[00:01:31]Then the phone flew from his hand. The shots kept coming [music] and a young man's life ended on camera for the whole world to see.

[00:01:39]But this wasn't random. This wasn't a robbery gone wrong.

[00:01:43]This was a calculated hit, the tragic end of a chain of events that had been building for months, starting with a can of red spray paint and a mural of a fallen hero.

[00:01:54]To understand why Indian Red Boy had to die that afternoon, we have to go back to the spring of 2021 and a piece of wall art in South Los Angeles.

[00:02:05]Zareil De'shon Rivera was born on February 14th of 2001.

[00:02:11]A Valentine's Day baby.

[00:02:13]He grew up in Long Beach, California, raised primarily by his mother, Shawana Rivera, who was a Blood herself.

[00:02:21]She kept her kids flamed up from the jump. So, in many ways, Zareil's path in the streets was written long before he ever picked a set.

[00:02:30]By all accounts, he was a lively kid.

[00:02:33]His aunt, Jasmine Rivera, remembers him as outgoing and funny. Always cracking jokes, always trying to make somebody laugh.

[00:02:42]He loved basketball. He loved video games. He collected sneakers. And he had a peculiar habit of putting hot sauce on everything he ate.

[00:02:51]He played basketball at Jordan High School in North Long Beach. And back then, he wasn't heavily wrapped up in gang life.

[00:02:59]He was just a kid [music] with big dreams and a bigger personality.

[00:03:04]After high school, Zareil started chasing [music] music.

[00:03:08]He'd hang around local studios hoping somebody would hear him, hoping somebody would give him a shot.

[00:03:14]Eventually, somebody did.

[00:03:16]He stepped in [music] a booth, laid down some bars, and for a brief moment, it looked like he might actually make something of himself in the music business.

[00:03:25]Then his mother died.

[00:03:27]Shawana Rivera was Zareil's best friend.

[00:03:30]She was his anchor, [music] his center, the person he leaned on most.

[00:03:35]When she passed, something inside him broke.

[00:03:39]His aunt, Jasmine, said it left a hole in him that never healed.

[00:03:43]He wasn't the same kid after that. The laughter got quieter. The jokes got rarer.

[00:03:49]And suddenly, at barely 20 years [music] old, he became the oldest figure in a household full of younger brothers who needed him.

[00:03:57]He stepped up. He tried to be a mentor to his four younger brothers, but grief is a heavy thing to carry, especially for a young man still figuring out who he is.

[00:04:08]And when the pain got too loud, Zareil turned to the streets for comfort.

[00:04:13]Out there, he found something that felt like what he'd lost. Brotherhood.

[00:04:18]Belonging. A second family.

[00:04:21]Zareil joined the Hollywood Piru, a Blood set on the east side of Compton.

[00:04:27]Now, the Hollywood Piru aren't the most loved set on the map. They've got a reputation among other Blood gangs for being one of the least liked. And there have been whispers over the years about them backdooring their own members.

[00:04:41]But Zareil was young, >> [music] >> hungry, and looking for a home. He banged that set hard during his time with them.

[00:04:48]Trouble came fast. Zareil started feeling like members of his own set were working against [music] him, and he didn't know who he could trust.

[00:04:57]That's a dangerous place to be in this lifestyle.

[00:05:00]So, he made a move. He left the Hollywood Piru and slid over to the Sentinella Park Family in Inglewood.

[00:05:08]Hood hopping is generally looked down on in gang culture.

[00:05:12]Once you claim a set, you're supposed to stand on that for life.

[00:05:16]But Zareil left on his own terms, and the transition was smooth because he was already tight with a young homie named Capone from the family.

[00:05:26]Capone was rising fast in the ranks.

[00:05:28]He was young, active, and starting to make a name for himself.

[00:05:33]When other gangs or rival Crips tried to give Zareil flak about jumping sets, Capone would step up and vouch for him.

[00:05:41]From that point on, Zareil was Indian Red Boy. Inglewood Family Blood.

[00:05:47]The family embraced him, and for the first time in a long time, he seemed to find his footing.

[00:05:54]And this is where our story takes a darker turn.

[00:05:57]To understand what happened next, you've got to understand who Nipsey Hussle was to Los Angeles.

[00:06:03]Nipsey, born Ermias Asghedom, was more than a rapper. He was a community pillar.

[00:06:10]He was a Rollin 60s [ __ ] who spent the later years of his life pouring money, time, and love back into South LA.

[00:06:19]He opened businesses.

[00:06:20]>> [music] >> He employed kids from the neighborhood.

[00:06:23]He preached unity across gang lines when most folks wouldn't dare.

[00:06:28]When he was gunned down outside his Marathon Clothing Store on March 31st of 2019, it didn't just hit [music] the Rollin 60s. It hit the whole city. Blood, [ __ ] and civilian alike mourned him.

[00:06:42]There's a famous mural of Nipsey at the corner of Slauson and Crenshaw, right behind the Fatburger.

[00:06:49]It shows him rising up into the higher realm, a tribute to a man who many in Los Angeles came to view as almost sacred.

[00:06:57]For 2 years, that mural stood untouched.

[00:07:01]Then in May of 2021, somebody took a can of red spray paint to it.

[00:07:07]That somebody was Capone, Zareil's close friend.

[00:07:24]Capone, huh? God.

[00:07:26]Capone.

[00:07:28]Yeah.

[00:07:29]All banging Capone, okay.

[00:07:34]Capone walked up to one of the most beloved pieces of public art in the city, whited out Nipsey Hussle's face, and wrote his own name in big red letters across the wall.

[00:07:45]Then he went live on Instagram to celebrate.

[00:07:48]The community was horrified. Capone didn't apologize. Capone doubled down.

[00:07:54]He bragged about it on camera, claimed he wasn't afraid of anybody, and dared anyone who had a problem to come find him.

[00:08:01]But I'm not tripping, you know me, Blood. You know I'm dangerous. All of us are. [ __ ] y'all.

[00:08:07]You know I'm dangerous. Hey, what what what we doing over there?

[00:08:11]He was chasing clout, and he got it.

[00:08:14]The backlash was enormous.

[00:08:16]And during those same Instagram lives, eagle-eyed viewers got their first real look at Capone's running buddy, a young Blood with a quiet smile and a name nobody outside the neighborhood knew yet, Indian Red Boy.

[00:08:31]Now, here's where things get complicated. Multiple insiders, >> [music] >> including Blood affiliate and music mogul Wack 100, would later say flat out that Indian Red Boy was not the one who [music] defaced Nipsey's mural.

[00:08:45]That was Capone. Red Boy was guilty of nothing more than being Capone's friend.

[00:08:51]But in the streets, association is everything.

[00:08:54]If your homie does it, you stand with him. And if your homie angers an entire side of the city, you stand with him then, too.

[00:09:03]Fast forward about a month and a half.

[00:09:06]It's Thursday, July 8th, 2021.

[00:09:09]Zareil is parked in the carport at the rear of a gated apartment complex on Chadron Avenue in Hawthorne.

[00:09:17]He's on Instagram live with Capone. The two of them laughing, joking, shooting the breeze.

[00:09:24]In a moment that would later send chills through every person who watched the video back, Zareil actually asked Capone a hypothetical question.

[00:09:33]"What would you do if enemies boxed you in and you didn't have a gun on you?"

[00:09:38]They laughed about it.

[00:09:39]And then Zareil's eyes lifted, his face changed, and he said the last two words most people ever heard him say on that live stream.

[00:09:49]"What the" The shots came fast. Glass shattered.

[00:09:54]Blood poured from his nose.

[00:09:56]The phone tumbled, and through the chaos, viewers could hear him struggling to say two final words.

[00:10:03]Get help.

[00:10:04]But help wasn't coming.

[00:10:06]He was already slipping away.

[00:10:09]The Hawthorne Police Department would later confirm he'd been shot three times in the head. A walk-up shooting.

[00:10:16]Targeted. Professional.

[00:10:18]When officers arrived at 4:01 p.m., they found him slumped in the driver's seat, the carnage still fresh. A gun resting on his lap that he never had a chance to reach for.

[00:10:30]The video spread across the internet faster than anyone could take it down.

[00:10:35]Within hours, millions had seen it.

[00:10:38]Twitter lit up with shock and horror.

[00:10:41]"I low-key wish I didn't watch it." one user wrote.

[00:10:45]"Almost ended up in tears." said another.

[00:10:48]Many couldn't bring themselves to watch it at all.

[00:10:51]And then came the theories.

[00:10:53]The first and loudest was that this was payback for Nipsey Hussle's mural.

[00:10:58]That the Rollin 60s had finally [music] struck back and that they'd gotten the wrong man.

[00:11:04]The second theory was that Zerail's old set, the Hollywood Piru, had orchestrated the hit due to lingering bad blood from his departure.

[00:11:13]A third theory, whispered quietly among those who claimed to know, was that a woman had set him up. That she'd given his location to the wrong people after a personal dispute.

[00:11:25]But the Inglewood Bloods weren't waiting for theories. They were angry and they wanted blood.

[00:11:31]Throughout July of 2021, shootings erupted across the Rollin 60s territory.

[00:11:38]The 60s, by most accounts, had nothing to do with it.

[00:11:42]But when grief and rage collide in the streets, right answers don't always win the day.

[00:11:48]A few days after Zerail's murder, rapper The Game made things worse.

[00:11:53]On Instagram live, he dropped a few bars that many people took as a direct shot at Indian Red Boy.

[00:12:00]All white Air Force ones, [ __ ] coming through the hood with them Air Force guns.

[00:12:06]We got more Dracs than a billboard.

[00:12:08]Disrespect a [ __ ] get killed for.

[00:12:11]We're not going to stand for the disrespect. Get this.45 barrel pressed against your neck. The Inglewood Family Bloods were furious. A Cedar Block Piru appearing to celebrate the death of one of their homies. That wasn't sitting right with anybody.

[00:12:26]The next day, The Game went back on Instagram live to clear things up.

[00:12:31]He apologized to every Piru, every Blood, every gangbanger in LA.

[00:12:37]He said the bars had been sitting in his phone since April or May, long before Zerail was killed, and that the timing was just bad.

[00:12:45]He name-dropped OG Wack 100, Big Wy, and others he'd spoken with that morning. He said he'd get with the family and help bury the homie.

[00:12:55]Situation that was brought to my attention this morning by the homies, by a gang of homies. Um, it's in my DMs.

[00:13:01]This is upsetting. Feel a way. I get it.

[00:13:04]Um, understand I mean no disrespect.

[00:13:06]Meant no disrespect to no Pirus, no Bloods, no no LA no gangbangers, period.

[00:13:13]But um, speaking on the uh, you know, the Indian Red Boy situation. Number one, RIP to the homie. Um, love to his whole family, his immediate family, his close homies, the whole Inglewood Family Blood card. And just all the Pirus down moves across the world, period. If anybody felt a certain way or felt disrespected by, you know, what I said.

[00:13:32]Number one, I've been wrote them bars and bars [clears throat] been in my phone since like May or April. And uh, you know, yesterday I decided to put them, you know, put out um, on the live.

[00:13:41]Bad timing on my behalf. Um, and um, I I feel I feel, you know, um, they feel, you know, like I disrespected somebody, but it's really just bad timing. So, on me, I'mma get with the homies, the big homies, some of the little homies. Um, and uh, I'mma get with Blood family and uh, help bury Blood, you know, throw some uh, chips his way for the funeral and all that.

[00:14:03]Um, and and but really, you know, the big homies, the and and my age and all the OGs know what it is with me.

[00:14:09]Know that I'm from West Side Cedar Block Bompton Piru. I stand on that. I've been a solid my whole career. I didn't been at it with them with with my own homies.

[00:14:17]I didn't been at it with Crips. [ __ ] it's LA. That's how it goes. It's a gang culture. Um, you know, a [ __ ] should know not to speak on certain No matter No matter what it is, whether it was relative to this situation or not. But um, I did. Um, and so, you know, I got to stand on that. And I got to rectify the situation, make right with with all the little homies out there cuz I know out there dying in these streets. I've been shot. I got dead homies. I know I know what it is, man. I got family that's dead. And and I just know how this LA gang I know how go anyway, homie. So, it's it's young It's for the young. I'm talking to y'all. I know y'all [ __ ] out there doing y'all y'all active. And uh, you know, again, I didn't mean no disrespect to the to the young homies, um, the the YG homies, the the OG homies already know what it is. I done talked to a few of them this morning. Just know what it is. And uh, you know, it's it's you know, it's just a simple mistake, but you know, you got to be a man to stand on rectify the situation. I'm going to do that. Um, I talked to Manchester, um, from Inglewood Family. I talked to the homie Big Wy. I talked to Wack 100 this morning. And I'm I'm I'm going to reach out to a few, you know, few more of the OG homies, um, and and some of the little homies and just you know, do whatever I got to do to make right. Um, I wasn't speaking on that situation directly. I ain't say Blood name. I ain't say no names. I ain't say no gangs, no nothing about that.

[00:15:32]Um, but I understand the sensitivity and the timing. But like I said, I wrote that months ago. Had it in my phone. Um, when I wrote that Blood was still alive. So, it ain't got nothing to do with him. But I get it. I get it. So, I'mma rectify the Like I said, um, I'mma [clears throat] get with Blood family and help bury Blood. You know, after that, I'mma be done with it. Again, all the little homies out there, meant no disrespect.

[00:15:56]Big homies, no disrespect. Nobody in the whole Blood card. [ __ ] no gangsters, no LA gangsters, period. I know how the go and I ain't disrespecting nobody out here. No Crips, no Bloods, no SA's, no no not not even no non-affiliated hard-working out here, man. It's LA. And I know what they do.

[00:16:13]All right.

[00:16:14]On July 14th, The Game followed through.

[00:16:17]He donated $5,000 to Zerail's GoFundMe, helping it hit its $10,000 goal.

[00:16:24]Wack 100 chipped in another $1,000.

[00:16:28]Between the two of them, they covered about 60% of the funeral costs.

[00:16:33]Wack 100 would go on record days later making a point he felt the world needed to hear.

[00:16:40]"Indian Red Boy," he said, "was not the one who disrespected Nipsey Hussle.

[00:16:45]The individual that lost his life," Wack said, "he ain't even the one that's guilty of even violating Nipsey Hussle.

[00:16:52]Let's stop twisting this into something it ain't got to be."

[00:16:56]You know what I mean? About this gang verse. All right.

[00:17:00]Just to clarify something.

[00:17:02]When the world was When all I was talking about is music, wasn't disrespecting that man as individual. [music] Was just talking overall music.

[00:17:12]Game was still talking about what dude to disrespect.

[00:17:18]Even though the world tried to pin it on me and find me guilty for something I wasn't guilty of.

[00:17:23]Uh, I just think it was bad timing.

[00:17:26]I just checked this phone personally.

[00:17:28]Bars been in there about two months. He pre-writes his songs. In October of 2021, three months after Zerail bled out in that [music] carport, the case took a turn.

[00:17:40]Arrests were made.

[00:17:42]Two members of the Rollin 50s Neighborhood Crips, one from 57th Street and one from 55th Street, were taken into custody and charged with first-degree murder.

[00:17:53]They didn't stay quiet for long.

[00:17:55]Faced with the weight of the system, they cooperated with detectives. And the story they [music] told led investigators to the man who pulled the trigger.

[00:18:04]His name on the streets was Cap 5 and he came out of the Rollin 100s.

[00:18:09]Specifically Underground Block Crips main clique on 105th Street.

[00:18:14]Now, a hood like that is full of shooters and Cap 5 was one of their many young gunners.

[00:18:20]But unlike most gang members his age, Cap 5 didn't crave the social media spotlight.

[00:18:26]He didn't post his face on Instagram. He didn't run his mouth on live streams. He was the quiet, deadly type and he'd reportedly already put in serious work before he was even old enough to vote.

[00:18:39]As a troubled youth coming up in a broken household, [music] he'd cycled in and out of the halls doing stints at Camp Kilpatrick.

[00:18:47]At 18, he was charged with evading police, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, and unlawful firearm activity.

[00:18:56]He bailed out in March of 2021.

[00:18:59]Four months later, Indian Red Boy was dead.

[00:19:03]According to statements from the two Rollin 50 Neighborhood Crips members, one of them lived in the same apartment complex as Zerail.

[00:19:11]About a week before the murder, the two had a hostile run-in at a local convenience store.

[00:19:17]Words were exchanged. Zerail walked away thinking nothing of it. But he was being watched.

[00:19:23]The 50s passed Cap 5 the drop. Told him exactly where Zerail would be and gave him whatever else he needed to make the hit [music] happen.

[00:19:32]In their statements to detectives, the 50s tried to put as much distance between themselves and the actual murder as possible. Laying most of the blame at Cap 5's feet.

[00:19:43]Their cooperation paid off. Their first-degree murder charges were dismissed and reduced to assault with a semi-automatic firearm.

[00:19:51]They were sentenced to 6 [music] years in state prison.

[00:19:56]In November of 2024, Cap 5 was found guilty of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm.

[00:20:03]While he was sitting in jail awaiting sentencing, he picked up additional charges for taking part in a riot at the county jail.

[00:20:11]Those charges included battery by gassing a corrections officer, using force or violence in a county jail, and carrying a dagger.

[00:20:20]Those new charges would eventually be dismissed, [music] but the murder conviction stuck.

[00:20:25]Cap 5 was ultimately sentenced to [music] 29 years to life.

[00:20:30]Shortly after sentencing, he caught yet another charge for possession of a weapon, but that one got dismissed for lack of a speedy trial.

[00:20:39]Capone, the man who defaced [music] Nipsey's mural, the man whose actions lit the fuse on this whole tragic chapter, was also eventually arrested [music] and sentenced to over a decade in prison on related charges.

[00:20:53]The irony was brutal.

[00:20:55]The man whose actions started the fire survived.

[00:20:58]The friend who stood by him did not.

[00:21:01]Indian Red Boy had potential. He had a family that loved him. He had four younger brothers who looked up to him.

[00:21:08]He had an aunt who still speaks about him with tears in her voice, remembering the boy who loved basketball, who did backflips in the yard, who helped elderly neighbors carry their groceries.

[00:21:20]His aunt Jasmine put it best when she told a reporter that Zeraeil went to the streets looking for family, and ironically, that's what killed him.

[00:21:30]The Inglewood Family Bloods are still honoring his memory to this day.

[00:21:34]And every year when February rolls around, his people light candles for a Valentine's Day baby who never got to see 22. [music] Indian Red Boy's story is not just about one young man.

[00:21:47]It's about the price of loyalty in a world where loyalty is a loaded gun.

[00:21:52]It's about what happens when social media becomes a weapon.

[00:21:56]It's about the quiet tragedy of good kids falling into bad situations, and the mothers, aunts, and brothers left behind to piece together what's left.

[00:22:06]If this one hit you like it hit us, share it, and remember the names of the young men we've lost to these streets.

[00:22:13]Until next time, [music] take care of yourselves and take care of each other.