FBI Closes Investigation Into Murder Of B.I.G.

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 […]

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.