The Crime Book

256

Orlando Tive “Baby Lane”

Anderson, a member of the

Southside Crips Gang.

Knight was affiliated with the

rival Pirus Bloods street gang. Upon

seeing Anderson, Knight’s friend

Trevon “Tray” Lane told Shakur

that Anderson was part of a posse

that snatched a Death Row gold

necklace from Lane’s neck a month

earlier. Shakur pounced on

Anderson, and his whole entourage

joined in stomping and kicking

him, not caring that their actions

were being captured on the

casino’s surveillance videotape.

However, Anderson declined to

press charges, and they all went

their separate ways.

Shakur shot

After Anderson’s beating, Shakur’s

group got into a convoy of cars to

head to a party. At 11:15pm, at the

intersection of Flamingo Road and

Koval Lane, a white Cadillac with

California licence plates pulled

up next to Knight’s black sedan,

in which Shakur and Knight were

riding. As the Cadillac came

alongside, a man in the back seat

rolled down the window, stuck out

his arm, and opened fire. Shakur

was shot three times, once in the

chest; Knight was hit with shrapnel

at the base of his skull.

Two bicycle officers with the

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police

Department heard the shots from

THE MURDERS OF TUPAC SHAKUR AND BIGGIE SMALLS

inside a parking garage next to the

intersection and hurried down to

street level. They followed Knight’s

sedan as it made a U-turn to evade

the gunman. The driver of the

Cadillac turned onto another street

and disappeared into the night.

For the next seven days, Shakur

remained in a coma in a critical

condition. He also underwent

several surgeries and medical

procedures to stop the bleeding

in his chest. On the afternoon of

13 September, however, he died

from his injuries.

Shakur’s shooting sparked a

five-day gang war on the streets of

Compton, California, between the

Bloods and the Crips. In the end,

three men were dead and 10 were

wounded. The Compton Police

Department attributed the war to

retaliation by the Bloods against

the Crips for the Shakur shooting.

Biggie gunned down

Five months later, in February 1997,

Biggie Smalls – whose real name

was Christopher Wallace – travelled

to Los Angeles to promote his

Gang identity and turf wars

Gang warfare – which can have

violent consequences even for

innocent bystanders – usually

occurs within low-income

communities. The Los Angeles

Police Department believes that

there are five main reasons that

individuals in such communities

join gangs. Some are attracted

to the increased social status, or

the sense of brotherhood. Others

want protection from rival

gangs, or want to engage more

easily in criminal activity. Some

are simply coerced into joining.

Gangs use signifiers of identity

to create a sense of exclusivity,

such as tattoos, clothing, and

hand signs.

Gang rivalries usually occur

between two sides seeking

control of a particular territory.

One of the deadliest rivalries is

that of the Bloods and Crips in

Los Angeles. It began in the

1970s over control of the

neighbourhood of Compton and

accounted for a high percentage

of the gang-related murders in

southern Los Angeles.

Funeral cars pass down St. James

Place, Brooklyn, towards the home

of Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace

on 18 March 1997. Press and crowds

gathered to pay tribute to the rapper.

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257

second studio album and film a

music video for the album’s lead

single, “Hypnotize”. On 7 March,

Smalls appeared at the Soul Train

Music Awards to present an award

to singer Toni Braxton, but was

booed by some members of the

audience due to his feud with the

late Tupac Shakur.

On 8 March, Smalls, with

record producer Sean Combs and

an entourage, attended a party

hosted by Vibe magazine and

Qwest Records at the Petersen

Automotive Museum on Wilshire

Boulevard, Los Angeles. Smalls

told his mother he had cancelled

a flight to London so that he could

attend the party.

A fire marshal closed the party

early due to overcrowding, and

at 12:30am, Smalls and his

entourage left the museum in two

GMC Suburbans. Smalls sat in the

front passenger seat. When his

SUV stopped at a red light behind

Combs’s vehicle at the corner of

Wilshire Boulevard and South

Fairfax Avenue, a Chevrolet Impala

drove up alongside.

The events that unfolded

mirrored the fate that had befallen

Shakur. A man in a button-down

shirt and bow tie rolled down the

driver’s window of the Impala and

fired at Smalls with a 9 mm blue-

steel pistol, hitting him four times.

The driver of the Impala sped

away, while Smalls’s entourage

rushed him to hospital. Despite the

doctors’ efforts, Smalls was

pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

Unsolved crime

Police investigations into Shakur’s

death did not lead to any formal

murder charges. In his affidavit

chronicling the investigation,

Detective Timothy Brennan of the

Compton Police Department’s gang

unit named Anderson as Shakur’s

likely killer. However, Anderson

was killed in an unrelated shootout

in Compton in 1998 and could not

be charged. Brennan was also

assigned to the taskforce working

to find Smalls’s killer. There, too,

the police were unable to bring the

killer to justice.

Multiple conspiracy theories

surround the murders of both

rappers, but none have been

substantiated. Rumours persist

that Smalls had Shakur killed, but

there is no evidence to back up the

theory. Investigators also found no

proof that the murder of Biggie

Smalls was linked to the East

Coast-West Coast rap war. Still,

some claimed that Sean Combs

hired Anderson to take out Shakur,

and others said Suge Knight

ordered the hit on Smalls.

The most plausible theory, said

the Los Angeles police, was that

Smalls was shot over a financial

dispute with Crips members who

had acted as his bodyguards – and

that it was unrelated to the murder

of Shakur. Nonetheless, new books,

biopics, and theories continue to

flourish, with even the police

assigned to the cases now writing

about the mysterious deaths of

Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls. ■

MURDER CASES

Smalls’s

Suburban stops at a red

light near the museum;

a Chevrolet Impala

pulls up alongside

9 March 12:30am

Biggie Smalls and his

entourage leave the

Petersen Automotive

Museum in Los Angeles

The driver of the Impala

fires four shots into

Smalls’s chest at

close range

Smalls is rushed to the

Cedars-Sinai Medical

Center in Los Angeles

1:15am

Biggie Smalls is

pronounced dead

as a result of his

gunshot wounds

I don’t think my son’s death

was connected to Tupac.

And I don’t think Christopher

had anything to do with

Tupac’s death.

Voletta Wallace

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