The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office identified the man on Wednesday as 32-year-old Javonta Marchand Murphy, but the cause of death was not determined at the time.
The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday that the coroner’s information confirms the cause of death as a gunshot wound to the head.
The circumstances that led to Murphy being shot and impaled in a barrel are still under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
The 208-liter black plastic drum was first seen on July 30 floating in Lake Malibu, and was brought by a maintenance worker in a kayak, but it was not immediately opened.
The sheriff’s office said a lifeguard opened the barrel on July 31 at Malibu Lagoon State Beach, which he retrieved after returning to the lagoon, not knowing how long the body had been in the barrel.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Nelson, a friend of the family, said Murphy grew up in South Los Angeles with four brothers and was an aspiring rapper.
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