The rapper Pop Smoke had been out that night, returning late to the four-bedroom Spanish-style house where he was staying in the Hollywood Hills. Around 4 a.m., soon after he came home, the police said, four men in hoodies broke in and shot him twice. A bullet to the torso left the promising 20-year-old musician dead.

A week after his death, the Los Angeles Police Department is trying to untangle whether Pop Smoke, whose real name was Bashar Jackson, was the victim of a random robbery or if he was targeted, perhaps because of what he was posting on social media. There have been no arrests.

In the weeks before his death, Pop Smoke had posted pictures on Instagram showing him next to or holding large stacks of cash. One such picture was posted the day before he died. He also posted about a gift bag he had received, in which the address of the Hollywood Hills home was clearly visible.

“It’s an angle we’re looking at,” Capt. Jonathan L. Tippet said of Pop Smoke’s Instagram posts. “It also extends the pool of people that would have known where he was at and could have targeted him for a variety of reasons.”