The Los Angeles Times reports [5] that on the night rapper Notorious B.I.G. was shot down in one of the city's most infamous unsolved homicides, he had no drugs or alcohol in his system, and that it was a single bullet that caused his death, though he was shot four times.
A coroner's medical examiner ran toxicology screens for alcohol, cocaine, codeine, morphine and methamphetamine with negative results for all.
The autopsy report has been on a security hold and sealed for more than 15 years, ever since the rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in March 1997.
The report shows that although he was shot four times, it was a single bullet that ended his life. One of the bullets entered the rapper's right hip, and fatally pierced several organs.
Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher George Latore Wallace, was killed by an unknown assailant on Wilshire Boulevard as the music star sat in the front passenger seat of a Chevrolet Suburban. The killing of the rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls, remains unsolved despite an LAPD task force that examined the death.
In a separate report at the StarTribune [6], an attorney for the rapper's family lambasted the police for releasing the report without notifying relatives, but chiefly for failing to make an arrest in the crime.
Perry Sanders Jr. said he was not given any notice that the report would be released, and he criticized police for not closing one of Los Angeles' highest-profile unsolved murders, especially since he had been told that police had identified those responsible.
"I've been advised by the homicide detective that was in charge of the investigation and is no longer with the department that the crime has been solved for several years now," Sanders told The Associated Press.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times [5] and the StarTribune [6].
Like The Root on Facebook [7]. Follow us on Twitter [8].
Comments
Comments on Twitter