Rapper Big Paybacc Shot Dead In McDonald's

Rapper Big Paybacc has been shot dead while eating his lunch in a McDonald's near Los Angeles.

The star, whose 2011 track Gangsta Luv has been viewed more than 250,000 times on YouTube, was gunned down by an attacker who walked in and opened fire.

Police said about 15 people were in the restaurant in Palmdale, a community about 35 miles north of Los Angeles, when the shooting happened.

The killer was said to have fired at the rapper several times using a handgun and officers found the him with multiple wounds.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Deputy Guillermina Saldana said: "It appears to detectives that the victim was the intended target of the suspect and that this was not a random shooting."

The rapper's body is taken away from the scene. Pic: CBS Los Angeles

The victim was identified officially as 38-year-old Habeeb Ameer Zekajj, the rapper's real name.

A woman who identified herself as his girlfriend, Jessica Jefferson, told a local TV station that the rapper left behind three children.

She told CBS2: "For them to be that bold, to run into a McDonald's in daylight, in front of people, kids you know, and take some kind of vengeance toward somebody, it's inhumane.

"He's a good rapper, and he has so many followers and people who stand behind him. He really is a good, solid person."

Big Paybacc was connected to former G-Unit artist Spider Loc.