Police officers could have seen Biggie's murder

Original: “Report: Police saw rapper shooting” · Associated Press, reprinted in the Las Vegas Sun · no byline · April 1997 (often listed as August 23, 1997)

Police officers in the convoy, but no one came forward as a witness

When The Notorious B.I.G. was shot, an off-duty Inglewood officer was sitting in the car right behind him. He was escorting the rapper on the night of the murder as a private security guard-yet none of them came forward to investigators after the crime. In April 1997, the Associated Press passed on a report by the Los Angeles Times: at least one police officer, and perhaps as many as six, allegedly worked as private security for Biggie that night.

Damion Butler, Biggie’s friend and tour manager, couldn’t believe it: “Where did they go? They had to see it.” Inglewood Police Chief Alex Perez confirmed that his department was investigating the allegations. The officer’s moonlighting violated department regulations.

According to the newspaper, undercover investigators from New York were also nearby, observing criminals in the orbit of Biggie’s Bad Boy label as part of a federal investigation. The Justice Department and the police remained silent.

Police officers serving both camps

The report came from Chuck Philips, the reporter who covered the rap murders for the Los Angeles Times for years. In July 1997, the Inglewood officer was suspended over the moonlighting job. The fact that police officers earned money on the side in both camps-at Death Row as well as at Bad Boy-later became a central theme in the theories about the murder, especially those of former detective Russell Poole.

The article is often listed under August 23, 1997. The AP dispatch, however, cites a report from the Los Angeles Times published “today”; that report appeared on April 23, 1997. The dispatch therefore very likely dates from April 1997.

To this day, Biggie’s murder remains unsolved. For Tupac fans, the dispatch shows how chaotic the situation was in 1997: gangs, labels, bodyguards, and police officers whose roles overlapped.