August Alsina imagines

Happy birthday Mel

Happy birthday to Melvin La'Branch the III , of yall don't know who he is that's August's deceased brother.

Police officers responding to an 11:30 p.m. 911 call of a shooting found Melvin LaBranch III lying face-down on a sidewalk in front of an open lot in the 4300 block of America Street, a block from his own home. He bled from at least one bullet wound to the head, said officer Janssen Valencia, a New Orleans Police Department spokesman.

According to Valencia, LaBranch was in good enough shape to speak briefly with responding police. Emergency Medical Services paramedics soon took him to Interim LSU Public Hospital's trauma center for treatment; however, doctors there pronounced him dead from the shooting at 12:34 a.m., chief coroner's investigator John Gagliano said.

Investigators did not immediately release details about a motive in the killing on Tuesday. They also did not name a suspect.

LaBranch had three young daughters, said his father, Melvin LaBranch Jr. For the last half-year of his life, he supported them by working for the family construction company, LaBranch Properties Inc. He had been training to eventually manage it.

"My son really cared about his daughters," Melvin LaBranch Jr. said. "He never left their side all of their lives, and I hate that now they have to grow up without their father."

LaBranch III lived with his daughters, his girlfriend and her mother in the 4300 block of Dale Street, an area he grew fearful of the early morning of July 24, according to his father.

That day, gunshots rang out right on the other side of his front door, bringing the house party across the street to an abrupt end.

LaBranch III stepped outside to examine what happened. He saw the corpse of a man, just nine years older than him, lying a few feet away.

"It shook him up," his father said. "He realized he wanted to get out of there.

R.I.P MellyB
April 15th - August 31st
😇🙌🏽