Wednesday marks 25 years since the rapper Notorious B.I.G. was fatally shot in Los Angeles, and in the quarter century since, identifying the perpetrators has proven elusive.
The Brooklyn native born Christopher Wallace was leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in the early hours of March 9, 1997, when a car pulled up alongside his and opened fire.
The rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries at the age of 24.
To this day, the legacy of Biggie Smalls lives on, as does his feud with Tupac Shakur, who was fatally shot in Las Vegas the year prior and whose murder also remains unsolved.
Allegations of responsibility have been leveled at music industry figures, gang members and even Los Angeles Police Department officers, but still, no one has been convicted.
Retired FBI Agent Phil Carson, however, disputes that the truth has not been found.
“It’s solved,” he said. “The LAPD even states in their own internal affairs documents that are under seal who was involved and who helped orchestrate the murder.”
According to those documents, Marion “Suge” Knight, the famous music executive who founded Death Row Records, used LAPD officers and one of the officers’ friends to kill the rapper as revenge for the murder of Shakur, who was signed to Death Row.
In an email, an LAPD spokesperson noted that the case is still open and declined to comment.
The officers allegedly involved are Rafael Perez and David Mack, who were later implicated in the LAPD’s Rampart scandal, Carson said.
Carson claims Mack’s friend, Amir Muhammad, was the one who pulled the trigger. He said there is evidence that all three men were at the Petersen Automotive Museum the night of the deadly shooting.
Following the Rampart scandal and the Rodney King beating and the ensuing lawsuits, the LAPD decided to protect its finances and reputation, and in doing so, protect those officers, Carson alleges.
In the years since the murder, Mack and Knight have served time in prison, Mack for robbery and Knight for a fatal hit-and-run in 2015.