PnB Rock’s fiancée Stephanie Sibounheuang wiped tears Tuesday as she gave jurors her firsthand account of how the hip-hop star pushed her out of the way to save her life when a shooter wearing a ski mask opened fire on the couple inside a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles nearly two years ago.
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Speaking in a soft voice, Sibounheuang said the shooter appeared out of nowhere just minutes after the couple received their food at a table near the entrance of the restaurant in South Los Angeles on September 12, 2022.
“He came to our table right away. I thought it was a fan asking for a picture until I saw the gun,” Sibounheuang testified on the fifth day of the murder trial centered on the death of the acclaimed rap artist born Rakim Allen. Sibounheuang said the shooter was holding the gun just inches from Allen’s face when he demanded the couple hand over their jewelry, which she estimated was worth about half a million dollars. She said the gunman told Allen he would execute Sibounheuang first if the musician didn’t comply.
“He said, ‘If you don’t give me the jewelry, I’m going to blow her head off,’” Sibounheuang told jurors. She said the shooter again demanded, “Give me the fucking jewelry,” and appeared to be “inexperienced,” like a “kid who didn’t know what he was doing.”
“He had the gun on my man’s face, on it, touching it,” she recalled. She said Allen’s only movements were to put both hands in the air, with his palms facing out, before he turned his attention to protecting her. “He got shot, and he like pushed me to the wall and threw me under the table. The (gunman) just kept shooting. I was telling him, ‘Stop shooting him, are you trying to kill him?’”
Sibounheuang said the shooter leaned over and began removing jewelry from Allen’s body. She recalled reaching into her bag to find her phone to call for help. “He said, ‘Whoa, whoa, what are you grabbing?’ He was pointing his gun at me. I think he thought I had a gun,” she testified. “I thought I was dead.”
The mother of Allen’s four-year-old daughter said the gunman eventually fled with her $60,000 Audemars Piguet watch as well as multiple pieces robbed from Allen. She recalled trying in vain to render aid to Allen after three bullets ripped through his body.
“My man was on the floor, dying,” she told jurors. “I was putting pressure on his wounds.” She said it was too painful to watch the surveillance footage from inside the restaurant, which jurors reviewed on Monday. On the tape, the shooter is seen entering the restaurant two seconds before 1:21 p.m. and leaving a minute later. Sibounheuang is seen in a distraught state as police held her back from the first responders working on Allen.
Speaking to Rolling Stone after her testimony, Sibounheuang said Allen “saved” her life. “He’s heroic. He’s a hero. [Other men] would never,” she said of Allen’s actions to push her down and shield her.
The musician’s fiancée testified at the trial in Compton, Calif., that revolves around defendants Freddie Trone and Tremont Jones, two men who were not inside the restaurant when Allen was shot. Trone, 42, didn’t pull the trigger but is charged with Allen’s murder because prosecutors allege he sent his 17-year-old son into the Roscoe’s with a loaded gun to rob Allen. Trone has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder, two counts of robbery, and one count of conspiracy.
Jones, 46, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Prosecutors allege Jones tipped Trone and his son off to Allen’s whereabouts and met with him outside the restaurant minutes before the deadly shooting.
On the witness stand, Sibounheuang was asked about the Instagram post she shared that showed the couple’s food after it was delivered to their table. The post included a tag for the Roscoe’s chain but did not include the geolocating data specifying which location. “I took the location off. I just said I was at a Roscoe’s. There was no exact location on it. That’s why [the name] is clear. It’s transparent,” she testified. She said if the exact address was tagged, the name would have appeared with a colored background bubble.
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In the hours after the shooting, some people online suggested Sibounheuang’s Instagram post might have lured the armed assailant. A source previously told Rolling Stone that law enforcement did not believe the Instagram post played a role in drawing the shooter to the scene. (In the aftermath of the murder, Cardi B went online to defend Sibounheuang against any claims her geotagged post led to the deadly attack.)
In testimony on Monday, LAPD Detective Nellie Knight walked jurors through surveillance video captured both inside and outside the Roscoe’s. She testified that Allen and Sibounheuang arrived at the restaurant at 12:31 p.m. the day of the shooting, with Allen seen fist-bumping Jones on his way to his table. Allen and Sibounheuang later received their food at 1:08 p.m., setting the stage for the Instagram post by Sibounheuang. At 1:09 p.m., Trone appeared in the Roscoe’s parking lot and allegedly met with Jones ahead of the 1:21 p.m. shooting, Det. Knight told jurors.
In her testimony Tuesday, Sibounheuang revealed she had a “bad feeling” leading up to the couple’s stop at the restaurant. She said they were in town for a friend’s wedding and a business meeting and were set to catch a flight back to Atlanta later that day. She recalled asking Allen to remove his jewelry before they exited their borrowed Mercedes in the Roscoe’s parking lot.
“That’s just how I am. I’m always telling him to take his jewelry off. I asked one time, ‘Could you take the jewelry off before we go in? I’ve got a bad feeling.’ He said, ‘I don’t feel like it. I’ll take one of the watches off.’” She couldn’t say for sure that Allen actually removed the watch.
“When we were walking in, he said, ‘You sure you want to eat in here?’ I said, ‘If you want to.’ He said, ‘I got a bad feeling too. But it’s okay, we got God. God got us,’” Sibounheuang testified. “I guess he just had a bad feeling because I had a bad feeling. I put the energy in the air.”
Sibounheuang testified she had no idea that Allen had a firearm with him that day. An LAPD police officer testified last week that the gun was found by a firefighter as paramedics tried to save Allen. The black gun had been tucked in Allen’s waistband on his back, the officer testified. “I don’t know anything about a gun,” Sibounheuang testified Tuesday. She never saw it that day, she said under oath.
Trone’s 17-year-old son has been charged with the murder as a juvenile. His prosecution was suspended for another 30 days last week due to a finding he lacks the competency needed to follow a criminal trial and assist with his defense. The details of the finding were not discussed at the hearing.
Sibounheuang testified Tuesday that she and Allen first met in 2017 and were engaged to be married. She said he had been signed to Atlantic Records but was striking out as an independent artist at the time of his death. Sibounheuang said Allen’s latest song, “Love Me Again,” was written for her. (Allen shot to fame with his triple-platinum single “Selfish” in 2016, the same year Rolling Stone named him a New Artist You Need to Know . He was later featured with Chance The Rapper on Ed Sheeran’s “Cross Me” in 2019.)
On the witness stand, Sibounheuang appeared overcome by emotion a few times and even covered her face at one point, leading the judge to ask if she needed a break. She continued on, describing the aftermath of the shooting and how she was forced to answer police questions for four hours instead of riding to the hospital with Allen.
“I just wanted to go to the hospital. I didn’t know if he was dead or alive. I was trying to figure out what was going on with my man. This was a tragic moment, and I needed to be by his side,” Sibounheuang testified. She recalled asking investigators, “Why am I here, like I’m a criminal? I didn’t shoot him. Why am I here? I need to be with my man.”
Asked if she was in shock over the shooting, Sibounheuang answered, “I’m still in shock.”
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