Murder of Christopher Wallace

Death of The Notorious B.I.G.
Location Los Angeles, California, United States
Date March 9, 1997
12:45 a.m (approx. time) (Pacific Time Zone)
Target The Notorious B.I.G.
Weapons 9mm pistol
Perpetrator unknown

On the night of March 9, 1997, rapper Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G., was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California that led to his death an hour later. The murder remains unsolved.

Shooting

Composite sketch of the suspect in the shooting.

Wallace traveled to Los Angeles, California in February 1997, to promote his upcoming second studio album and film a music video for its lead single, "Hypnotize". On March 5, 1997, he gave a radio interview with The Dog House on KYLD in San Francisco. In the interview he stated that he had hired security since he feared for his safety, not just because of the ongoing East Coast–West Coast feud, but because of his role as a high profile celebrity in general.[1] Life After Death was scheduled for release on March 25, 1997. On March 8, 1997, he presented an award to Toni Braxton at the 1997 Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles and was booed by some of the audience.[2] After the ceremony, Wallace attended an after party hosted by Vibe magazine and Qwest Records at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.[2] Other guests included Faith Evans, Aaliyah, Sean Combs, and members of the Bloods and Crips gangs.[3]

On March 9, 1997, at around 12:30 a.m. (PST), Wallace left with his entourage in two GMC Suburbans to return to his hotel after the Fire Department closed the party early because of overcrowding.[4] Wallace traveled in the front passenger seat alongside his associates, Damion "D-Roc" Butler, Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease and driver, Gregory "G-Money" Young. Combs traveled in the other vehicle with three bodyguards. The two trucks were trailed by a Chevrolet Blazer carrying Bad Boy's director of security.[3]

By 12:45 a.m. (PST), the streets were crowded with people leaving the event. Wallace's SUV stopped at a red light at the corner of Wilshire Blvd & South Fairfax Ave[5] 50 yards (46 m) from the museum. A dark colored Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside Wallace's SUV. The driver of the Impala, a black male dressed in a blue suit and bow tie, rolled down his window, drew a 9 mm blue-steel pistol and fired at the GMC Suburban; four bullets hit Wallace.[3] Wallace's entourage rushed him to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors performed an emergency thoracotomy, but he was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m. (PST).

His autopsy was released to the public in December 2012, over a decade after his death. According to the report, three of the four shots were not fatal. The first bullet hit in his left forearm and traveled down to his wrist; the second hit him in the back, missing all vital organs, and exited through his left shoulder; and the third hit his outer left thigh and left through his inner thigh. The report said that the third bullet struck "the left side of the scrotum, causing a very shallow, 3⁄8 inch [10 mm] linear laceration." The fourth bullet was fatal, entering through his right hip and striking several vital organs, before stopping in his left shoulder area. That bullet struck his colon, liver, heart and upper lobe of his left lung.[6]

Investigation

Wallace's murder remains unsolved and there are many theories regarding the identities and motives of the murderers. Immediately after the shooting, reports surfaced linking the Shakur and Wallace murders, because of the similarities in the drive-by shootings.[7] In 1997, Los Angeles Times authors Chuck Philips and Matt Laitt reported that the key suspect was a member of the Crips acting in service of a personal financial motive.[8]

A 2002 book by Randall Sullivan called Labyrinth compiled information about the murders of Wallace and Shakur based on information provided by retired LAPD detective Russell Poole.[3][9] In the book, Sullivan accused Marion "Suge" Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records and a known Bloods affiliate, of conspiring with David Mack, an LAPD officer (whom Sullivan alleged without evidence to be a Death Row employee), to kill Wallace and make Shakur's and Wallace's death appear the result of a bi-coastal rap rivalry.[10][11] The book stated that one of Mack's alleged associates, Amir Muhammad (although there was never evidence that Muhammad knew Mack), was the hitman. The theory was based on evidence provided by an informant (who later recanted),[12] and an alleged but unsupported resemblance of Muhammed to the facial composite.[10][11] Filmmaker Nick Broomfield released a documentary, Biggie & Tupac, based on information from the book.[9]

Broomfield's low-budget documentary on the deaths of Tupac and Biggie was as the New York Times described it, a "largely speculative" and "circumstantial" account relying on flimsy evidence, failing to "present counter-evidence" or "question sources."[13] Moreover, the motive suggested for the murder of Biggie in the Broomfield film—to decrease suspicion for the Shakur shooting six months earlier—was, as The New York Times put it, "unsupported in the film."[13]

An article published in Rolling Stone by Sullivan in December 2005 accused the LAPD of not fully investigating links with Death Row Records based on Poole's evidence. Sullivan claimed that Sean Combs "failed to fully cooperate with the investigation" and according to Poole, encouraged Bad Boy staff to do the same.[3] The accuracy of the article was later refuted in a letter by the Assistant Managing Editor of the LA Times accusing Sullivan of using "shoddy tactics." Sullivan, in response, quoted the lead attorney of the Wallace estate calling the newspaper "a co-conspirator in the cover-up."[14] In alluding to Randall Sullivan-Russell Poole theory that formed the basis of the Wallace family's dismissed 500 million dollar suit against the City of Los Angeles, The New York Times wrote: "A cottage industry of criminal speculation has sprung up around the case, with documentaries, books and a stream of lurid magazine articles implicating gangs, crooked cops and a cross-country rap rivalry,"[15] noting that everything associated with the death of the Notorious BIG had been "big business."

In connection with Randall Sullivan's assertion that the LA Times was involved in a cover-up conspiracy with the L.A.P.D., it is instructive to note that conflicting theories of the Wallace murder were offered in different sections of the Times. The Metro section of the Times wrote that police suspected a connection between the Notorious B.I.G's death and the Rampart Division police-corruption scandal consistent with Sullivan and Poole's theory.[16] The Metro section ran a photo of Amir Muhammad, identified by police as a mortgage broker unconnected to the murder who appeared to match details of the shooter, and the paper printed his name and driver's license. But Chuck Philips, a staff writer for the business section of The Times, who had been following the Wallace investigation and had not heard of the Rampart-Muhammad theory, searched for Muhammad whom the Metro reporters could not find for comment. It took Philips only three days to find Muhammad, who had a current ad for his mortgage broker business running in the Los Angeles Times. Muhammed who was not a suspect at the time came forward to clear his name. The Metro section of the paper was opposed to running a retraction. But the business desk editor Mark Saylor [17] said "Chuck is sort of the world's authority on rap violence" and pushed, along with Philips, for the paper to retract the article.[16]

The May 2000 Los Angeles Times correction article was written by Philips, who quoted Muhammad as asking, "I'm a mortgage broker, not a murderer" and asking, "How can something so completely false end up on the front page of a major newspaper?"[18] The story cleared Muhammad’s name.[16][19] A later 2005 story by Chuck Philips, showing that the main informant for the Poole/Sullivan theory of Biggie's murder, implicating Muhammed, David Mack, Suge Knight and the L.A.P.D in a conspiracy, was a schizophrenic with admitted memory lapses known as "Psycho Mike" who confessed to hearsay.[20] John Cook of Brill's Content noted that Philips' article "demolished" [19] the Poole-Sullvan theory of Biggie's murder.

In the book The Murder of Biggie Smalls, investigative journalist and author Cathy Scott suggested that Wallace and Shakur's murders might have been the result of the East Coast-West Coast feud and the financial gain for the record companies, because the rappers were worth more dead than alive.[21]

The criminal investigation into Smalls' murder was re-opened in July 2006 to look for new evidence to help the city defend the civil lawsuits brought by the Wallace family.[22][23]

Retired LAPD detective Greg Kading, who worked on the Biggie Smalls murder case for three years, alleges that the rapper was shot by Wardell Fouse (a.k.a Darnell Bolton and "Poochie"), an associate of Suge Knight, who was later killed in July 2003 after being shot in the back while riding his motorcycle. Kading believes Knight hired Poochie via his girlfriend "Theresa Swann" to kill Biggie to avenge the death of Tupac,[24] whom Kading alleges was killed under the orders of Sean Combs.[25]

In December 2012, the LAPD released the autopsy results conducted on Wallace's body, to generate new leads. The release was criticized by the long-time lawyer of his estate, Perry Sanders Jr., who objected to an autopsy.[26] The case remains officially unsolved.

Lawsuits

Wrongful death claim

In March 2005, the relatives of Wallace filed a wrongful death claim against the city of Los Angeles based on the evidence championed by Russell Poole.[11] They claimed the LAPD had sufficient evidence to arrest the assailant, but failed to use it. David Mack and Amir Muhammad (a.k.a. Harry Billups) were originally named as defendants in the civil suit, but were dropped shortly before the trial began after the LAPD and FBI dismissed them as suspects.[11]

The case came for trial before a jury on June 21, 2005. On the eve of the trial, a key witness who was expected to testify at trial, Kevin Hackie, revealed that he suffered memory lapses due to psychiatric medications. He had previously testified to knowledge of involvement between Suge Knight, David Mack, and Amir Muhammed but later said that the Wallace attorneys had altered his declarations to include words he never said. Hackie took full blame for filing a false declaration.[12] Several days into the trial, the plaintiffs' attorney disclosed to the Court and opposing counsel that he had received a telephone call from someone claiming to be a LAPD officer and provided detailed information about the existence of evidence concerning the Wallace murder. The court directed the city to conduct a thorough investigation, which uncovered previously undisclosed evidence, much of which was in the desk or cabinet of Det. Steven Katz, the lead detective in the Wallace murder investigation. The documents centered around interviews by numerous police officers of an incarcerated informant, who had been Rafael Perez's cellmate for some extended period of time. He reported that Perez had told him about his and Mack's involvement with Death Row Records and their activities at the Peterson Automotive Museum the night of Wallace's murder. As a result of the newly discovered evidence, the judge declared a mistrial and awarded the Wallace family its attorneys' fees.[27]

On April 16, 2007, relatives of Wallace filed a second wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. The suit also named two LAPD officers in the center of the investigation into the Rampart scandal, Rafael Perez and Nino Durden. According to the claim, Perez, an alleged affiliate of Death Row Records, admitted to LAPD officials that he and Mack (who was not named in the lawsuit) "conspired to murder, and participated in the murder of Christopher Wallace". The Wallace family said the LAPD "consciously concealed Rafael Perez's involvement in the murder of ... Wallace".[28]

United States District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper granted summary judgment to the city of Los Angeles on December 17, 2007, finding that the Wallace family had not complied with a California law that required the family to give notice of its claim to the State within six months of Wallace's death.[29] The Wallace family refiled the suit, dropping the state law claims on May 27, 2008.[30]

The Wallace suit against the city of Los Angeles was finally dismissed in 2010. It was described by the New York Times as "one of the longest running and most contentious celebrity cases in history."[15] "A cottage industry of criminal speculation has sprung up around the case, with documentaries, books and a stream of lurid magazine articles implicating gangs, crooked cops and a cross-country rap rivalry," noted New YorkTimes journalist Ben Sisario,[15] alluding to Russell Poole's and Randall Sullivan's theory and Nick Broomfield's documentary among others. The Wallace suit had asked for 500 million dollars from the City of LA. "Everything related to Notorious B.I.G. has been big business," said Sisario in his obituary on the suit.[15]

Defamation

On January 19, 2007, Tyruss Himes (better known as Big Syke), a friend of Shakur who was implicated in the murder by television channel KTTV and XXL magazine in 2005, had a defamation lawsuit regarding the accusations thrown out of court.[31]

Reaction

Rapper Nas felt at the time of Wallace's death that his passing, along with that of Tupac Shakur, "was the end of rap".[32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Biggie Told Interviewer He Worried About Safety". MTV News. March 12, 1997. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bruno, Anthony The Murders of gangsta rappers Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. Court TV Crime Library. Retrieved January 24, 2007.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Sullivan, Randall (December 5, 2005). "The Unsolved Mystery of the Notorious B.I.G.". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 29, 2009. Retrieved October 7, 2006.
  4. ↑ Purdum, Todd S. (March 10, 1997). "Rapper Is Shot to Death in Echo of Killing 6 Months Ago". The New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  5. ↑ nevereatshreddedwheat # (March 9, 1997). "where biggie smalls was shot and killed in los angeles : the notorious b.i.g. | music at popturf". Popturf.com. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  6. ↑ Horowitz, Steven J. (December 7, 2012). "Notorious B.I.G. Autopsy Report Released". HipHop DX. Retrieved December 7, 2012.
  7. ↑ Cathy Scott. "Rap slaying similar to Shakur's". Las Vegas Sun. March 10, 1997.
  8. ↑ Philips Laitt, Chuck Matt (March 18, 1997). "Personal Dispute Is Focus of Rap Probe". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Fuchs, Cynthia (September 6, 2002). "Biggie and Tupac review" PopMatters. Retrieved January 2, 2007.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Serpick, Evan (April 12, 2002). "Review: Rappers' deaths probed in 'LAbyrinth'" Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 2, 2007.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Philips, Chuck "Slain rapper's family keeps pushing suit" Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2007. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Philips, Chuck (June 20, 2005). "Witness in B.I.G. case says his memory's bad". LA Times. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Leland, John (October 7, 2002). "New Theories Stir Speculation On Rap Deaths". New York Times. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  14. ↑ Duvoisin, Marc; Sullivan, Randall (January 12, 2006). "L.A. Times Responds to Biggie Story". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 7, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2012.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 SISARIO, Ben (April 19, 2010). "Wrongful-Death Lawsuit Over Rapper Is Dismissed". New York Times. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Cook, John (May 23–26, 2000). "Notorious LAT". Brills Content. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  17. ↑ Trounson, Rebecca (February 22, 2012). "Mark Saylor dies at 58; former Times editor oversaw Pulitzer-winning series". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
  18. ↑ Philips, Chuck (May 3, 2000). "Man No Longer Under Scrutiny in Rapper's Death". Los Angeles Times.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Cook, John. "Notorious LAT". Reference tone. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  20. ↑ Philips, Chuck (June 3, 2005). "Informant in Rap Star's Slaying Admits Hearsay". LA Times. Retrieved September 15, 2013.
  21. ↑ Bruno, Anthony. "Hip-Hop Homicide — "Worth More Dead Than Alive" — Crime Library on". Trutv.com. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  22. ↑ Philips, Chuck (July 31, 2006). "LAPD Renews Search for Rapper's Killer". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 20, 2007.
  23. ↑ "LAPD launching new Notorious BIG task force". Associated Press. August 3, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2006.
  24. ↑ Kenner, Rob (March 9, 2012). "Interview: Former L.A.P.D. Detective Says He Knows Who Killed The Notorious B.I.G.". Complex.com. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  25. ↑ Quinn, Rob (October 4, 2011). "Sean Combs Ordered Tupac Murder: LA Cop:And Suge Knight had Biggie Smalls killed in revenge, says book by former LAPD detective". Newser. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
  26. ↑ Wolfe, Roman (December 8, 2012). "Lawyer For Notorious B.I.G. Blasts LAPD Over Autopsy Report". AllHipHop. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
  27. ↑ Estate of Wallace v. City of Los Angeles, 229 F.R.D. 163 (C.D. Cal. 2005);Reid, Shaheem (July 5, 2005). "Notorious B.I.G. Wrongful-Death Case Declared A Mistrial". MTV News. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
  28. ↑ Finn, Natalie (April 18, 2007). "An Extra B.I.G. Suit". E! Online. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  29. ↑ Estate of Christopher G.L. Wallace v. City of Los Angeles, et al., 2:07-cv-02956-FMC-RZx, slip op. at 15 (C.D. Cal. December 17, 2007) (Cooper, J.).
  30. ↑ Complaint, Estate of Christopher G.L. Wallace v. City of Los Angeles, et al., 2:07-cv-02956-FMC-RZx (C.D. Cal. May 27, 2008).
  31. ↑ "Lawsuit involving rapper death dismissed". Yahoo!. Associated Press. January 20, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  32. ↑ Smith, Alex M. (August 18, 2014). "Nas Interview: Tupac, B.I.G. Deaths Were Nearly 'The End Of Rap'". Music Times.