DOLLA MURDERED

Dolla, an Atlanta-based rapper was fatally shot in the valet waiting area of the Beverly Center mall Monday by a suspect who fled in a silver Mercedes SUV, according to police.

Officers later detained a "person of interest" as he approached the ticketing area at Los Angeles International Airport armed with a gun. The shooting occurred about 3:10 p.m. in the parking garage of the popular Westside mall, sending diners in nearby restaurants diving for cover.

Dolla, born Roderick Anthony Burton II, was shot in the head as he and several other people stood near the center's La Cienega Boulevard entrance, according to police, witnesses and Dolla's publicist, Sue Vannasing. A friend of the rapper's who was at the Beverly Center and a Los Angeles Police Department official also confirmed the victim's identity to The Times.

Dolla, 21, arrived at LAX from Atlanta earlier in the day and went to the Beverly Center to shop, Vannasing said. After the shooting,he was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a few blocks from the mall, where he died, police said. The LAPD has not announced a motive for the attack or identified any suspects. Detectives are questioning a woman they detained at the scene and a man who allegedly drove from the mall to LAX in a rented silver Mercedes SUV.

About an hour after the shooting, the LAPD issued a bulletin for a 20-year-old man considered a "person of interest" in the shooting. Los Angeles Airport Police officers spotted a man fitting the description in the ticketing lobby of Terminal 1.

"The suspect was detained without incident [and] discovered to be armed," said Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman Nancy Castles. Police later found the Mercedes in an airport parking lot.

LAPD officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the continuing inquiry, said they are investigating whether the man was trying to get a flight out of L.A. Dolla was in town to work on his first album, slated to be released this summer on Jive Records, Vannasing said.

His first single, released in 2007, was "Who the . . . Is That?" The LAPD has not released a narrative of what happened in the mall garage.But Vannasing said Burton apparently had a dispute with some people, perhaps at the airport."

They followed him to the mall because they knew he was coming," Vannasing said. She added that Dolla was at the mall with another rapper, D.J. Shabbazz.

Police officials said they could not confirm or deny that account.

GV Says: SMH....sad