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“This is Kind of Stunning”: Songwriter Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide

SWAT responded to reports of shots fired, woman screaming at Palazzo East apartments near LACMA

Correction: Law enforcement sources say that after further investigation, one of the people who died in the Los Angeles murder-suicide is not related to the late recording artist, Isaac Hayes.

A rapper and his VH1 show cast member wife died in an apparent murder-suicide in a unit at an apartment complex in the Fairfax district.

Songwriter Earl Hayes and Stephanie Moseley, who played a member of a basketball team's dance squad of "Hit the Floor," were found dead early Monday.

Officers were sent to the Palazzo complex at Park La Brea, in the 300 block of Hauser Boulevard, a few blocks from The Grove shopping center, about 7:30 a.m. on neighbors' reports of multiple shots fired and a woman screaming.

VH1 officials issued a statement Monday evening, expressing condolences.

"We are incredibly saddened to hear the news of the passing of Stephanie Moseley," read the statement. "VH1 and the entire 'Hit The Floor' family send our thoughts and condolences to her family and friends at this difficult time."

After reports of a person with a gun barricading themselves in an apartment, the Los Angeles Police found two dead bodies. Vanessa Ruiz reports from the Fairfax District on the NBC4 News at Noon on Monday, Dec. 8, 2014.

The drama prompted an evacuation of some of the floors in the 600-unit building until officers determined there was no threat to their safety.

"I suddenly heard screaming," said Hayes' neighbor, Charles Segal, "and then the screaming stopped and the next minute, cops all over."

When arriving officers who entered the apartment encountered a closed back bedroom door and heard at least one gunshot, they sent for a SWAT team, LAPD Sgt. Barry Montgomery said.

When they made entry, the officers found two people dead of gunshot wounds.

A weapon was recovered.

An LAPD spokesman said that investigators had determined that the man shot the woman, then turned the gun on himself.

Moseley was identified by Hayes' friend and life coach, Burrel L. Wilks, III.

[DO NOT USE 12-31] 2014 SoCal Images in the News

Wilks said he considered Moseley his little sister.

"Whatever happened behind those doors, we'll never know," he said. "But I heard out of her own mouth he never raised a hand on her ... This is kind of stunning."

A friend of Hayes' said he was a songwriter for Alicia Keys.

In a song posted to his Soundcloud page, he rapped: "Been in court for corpses/Been in the game so long I met my enemies' orphans."

The Twitter account, @EarlHayes, was verified by the messaging service.

This Valentines Day I'll spend it alone http://t.co/FASbOqudhP
— Earl Hayes (@EarlHayes) February 15, 2014

At what point in your life do you feel it's time to take control of your own destiny
— Earl Hayes (@EarlHayes) April 26, 2014

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