Rappers Family Pushing for Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Posted by
Christina ColeFebruary 27, 2007 1:05 AMThe family of rapper Biggie Smalls is continuing with a wrongful-death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, in spite of several setbacks, based on a theory that a "crooked" LAPD detective was involved in orchestrating the murder.
With a trial date for this summer in federal court, new disclosed documents are shedding light on how the theory took shape from the start and how the police themselves ignored key parts of it almost immediately.
Biggie Smalls was gunned down and killed March 9, 1997 after a music industry party. The 24-year old rapper also known as Notorious B.IG., was waiting at a stoplight in an SUV when the killer pulled up in a dark Chevy, opened fire and sped away.
While the murder has spawned books, documentaries and magazine articles exploring possible conspiracy theories, the rapper's family continues to subscribe to the rogue cop account publicly championed by Russell Poole, an LAPD detective assigned to the case who later left the police force and became an expert witness for Wallace's family.Poole's theory: Los Angeles rap impresario Marion "Suge" Knight conspired with a corrupt LAPD detective, David A. Mack, to kill Wallace as part of a bicoastal rap feud linked to the Las Vegas killing six months earlier of Tupac Shakur.
Both Knight and Mack, who is now in prison for robbing a bank, deny any involvement and have been dropped as suspects by both the LAPD and the FBI. No one has been charged in the killings of Shakur and Wallace.
Perry Sanders, the attorney representing Wallace's family, said that "there are documents that we have looked at in the LAPD file that support our theory. The documents indicate that David Mack killed Christopher Wallace."
The theory lends that story that Knight wanted to kill Wallace to revenge the rappers suspected involvement in Shakur's murder. Mack was a "covert agent" and security guard for Knight.