Notorious BIG’s Autopsy Report Finally Released 15 Years After Shooting

After 15 years of trials and tribulations surrounding the death of one of hip hop’s most iconic identities, an autopsy report has released an official cause of death, however, the case remains one of the music industry’s greatest mysteries, with the killer still unknown.

Notorious B.I.G (Born Christopher Wallace) was shot and fatally wounded on March 9, 1997 after leaving a music industry event which he attended with his entourage.

After being held up by a red light at an intersection, an assassin pulled up alongside the car in which Biggie was traveling in, opening fire from the concealment of his own vehicle , fatally wounding Wallace. The plus sized rapper was pronounced dead at 1:45am on March 9 1997, no more than half an hour after leaving the music industry event.

The attack left Wallace with four gun shot wounds, however the official inquest into the death has revealed that Notorious B.I.G was killed by a single bullet, which pierced several internal organs, resulting in his ultimate demise.

The report into the tragedy has only recently been revealed, having been sealed at the request of detectives until last week.

The Calgary Herald reports Chief Coroner Investigator Craig Harvey stating: “The 23-page report details the trajectory of each of the shots that hit the rapper, whose name was Christopher Wallace”. Later adding: “Investigators determined that a single shot that hit his left lung, heart and colon led to the 24-year-old’s death.”The attack left Wallace with four gun shot wounds, however the official inquest into the death has revealed that Notorious B.I.G was killed by a single bullet…

The report findings also revealed that no drugs or alcohol were present in the system of the slain hip hop artist.

Los Angeles police and the FBI have investigated the killing over the years, but no arrests have ever been made in the bi-coastal search for an assailant. Law enforcement eventually halted the case in 2005 as federal prosecutors deemed there was inadequate evidence to pursue the case.

However, in March 2011 the FBI electronically released files on the investigation, which shed new light and ignited a spring of interest into the rapper’s mysterious death. Files revealed surveillance and interviews that were conducted in several cities, including LA, San Diego and New York, offering a glimmer of hope to family members seeking closure on the tragedy.

The death of Biggie Smalls came less than 12 months after the fatal shooting of friend-turned-foe, equally iconic west coast rapper Tupac Shakur, which further escalated the bloody cross country rivalry of hip hop groups in the late 90s.

The rivalry grew to dangerous heights after a string of attacks on high profile names, such as Shakur and Wallace, including reports that former hip-hop mogul James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond admitted his involvement in an incident in 1994 in which two armed men robbed Tupac Shakur at New York’s Quad Recording Studios, shooting him five times and leaving him for dead.

At the time, Shakur accused Biggie Smalls and his associate, Sean “Diddy” Combs, for the attack – leading to the coast-to-coast feud that eventually led to Shakur’s murder.

Some light has been shed however on the mysterious deaths of high profile rap artists of yesteryear, with an anonymous source linking the rise of gangster rap in the nineties with the profiteering of major labels and their involvement with privatised prisons.

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