The FBI’s investigation
into the 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G. has come to a close according to
a report published today by the Los Angeles Times.
Federal prosecutors reviewed
the case and came to the conclusion that there was not enough evidence to prosecute
anyone for the brazen shooting, which occurred as a crowded party was letting
out the Petersen Auto Museum. The event was an after party for the 1997 Vibe Awards.
The FBI ended the probe
in January, after they abandoned the theory that David Mack, a former policeman
for the LAPD, may have helped Marion “Suge” Knight orchestrate the
murder.
An FBI agent, Philip J. Carson, had been subpoenaed
to testify in Wallace’s wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Los
Angeles, which is slated to take place on April 12 in a Los Angeles federal
court.
The FBI ended the case and
told lawyers for Voletta Wallace, Biggie’s mother, that Philip J. Carson will not testify in the case and ordered
Carson to end his contact with the Wallace’s lawyers.
The head of the criminal
division of the FBI said that they closed Carson’s investigation simply
because there was not enough evidence.
Wallace’s attorney
Perry Sanders discounted the FBI’s explanation and said that credible
sources revealed that the LAPD "exerted political pressure on the FBI to
lay off the case."
The FBI denied Sanders’
statements.
"No one at the FBI
was asked or directed to stop anything," Assistant FBI Director Richard
T. Garcia told the LA Times. "This investigation was reviewed diligently
by [Carson’s] boss on a regular basis and the results were submitted to the
U.S. attorney’s office. They determined that the evidence was insufficient for
prosecution. So we dropped it."
The bureau has been stumped
by the murders of Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down in 1996 on the main strip
of Las Vegas after a Mike Tyson boxing match and the murder of B.I.G., who was
shot down six months later in front of hundreds of people.
Police believed that the
murders were the result of a bitter feud between Sean “P. Diddy”
Combs’ Bad Boy label and Marion “Suge” Knight’s Death
Row Records imprint.
Sources told the LA Times
that Carson may have been influenced by Wallace’s lawyers and that his
contacts with the attorneys could embarrass the FBI.
Carson maintains that he
was never influenced by the lawyers, nor did he share information.
The news comes
on the heels of a Newsweek report that suggested the murders of Shakur and Wallace
were part of a purported sweeping federal probe into the hip-hop industry.
