Notorious BIG Murder Site

Author: Amanda Peukert

In the early morning hours of March 9, 1997, 24 year old rapper Christopher Wallace, professionally known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, roughly 50 yards from an industry after party he had just left at the Petersen Automotive Museum.

The killing came just six months after the murder of his one-time friend and later rival Tupac Shakur, and remains one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American music history.

Christopher Wallace aka Notorious BIG

Christopher George Latore Wallace was born May 21, 1972 and raised in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He rose to fame in the mid 1990s under the name The Notorious B.I.G., signing with Sean "Puffy" Combs' Bad Boy Records in 1993 and releasing his 1994 debut album "Ready to Die." By early 1997, at just 24 years old, he was widely considered the biggest star in East Coast hip hop.

Wallace was in Los Angeles in March 1997 to promote his upcoming double album "Life After Death" and to attend the Soul Train Music Awards on March 7, where he presented an award to Toni Braxton and was booed by some in the audience. The trip came at the height of the East Coast vs. West Coast rap feud and just six months after the September 1996 shooting death of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.

The Petersen Museum After Party

On the evening of March 8, 1997, Wallace attended a private industry after party hosted by Vibe magazine, Qwest Records, and Tanqueray Gin at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles. More than 1,000 guests were on the invite list, including Faith Evans (Wallace's wife), Sean Combs, Queen Latifah, Aaliyah, Chris Tucker, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, the Wayans brothers, Russell Simmons, Grant Hill, and members of the Bloods and Crips gangs. The Petersen filled beyond capacity and the Los Angeles Fire Marshal reportedly shut down the party early.

The Shooting of Biggie Smalls

Just after 12:30 a.m. on March 9, Wallace left the party in a convoy of three vehicles heading toward another after party in the Hollywood Hills. Sean Combs led the convoy in the first SUV. Wallace rode in the front passenger seat of a green 1997 Chevrolet Suburban with driver Gregory "G-Money" Young, Damion "D-Roc" Butler, and Junior M.A.F.I.A. member Lil' Cease. A Chevrolet Blazer trailed the convoy with the Bad Boy Records director of security Paul Offord and an off-duty Inglewood police officer named Reggie Blaylock at the wheel.

Combs' SUV made it through a yellow light at Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue, but Wallace's Suburban was left idling at the red light directly behind him. At approximately 12:45 a.m., a dark Chevrolet Impala SS pulled up alongside the passenger side of Wallace's Suburban. The driver, later described by witnesses as a Black man in a powder blue suit and bow tie, rolled down his window and opened fire with a 9mm handgun. Six rounds were fired. Four struck Wallace. The Suburban immediately raced to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, less than a mile from the scene, where a team of doctors performed emergency surgery. Wallace was pronounced dead at 1:15 a.m.

Investigators later recovered nine 9mm shell casings from the scene, all fired from the same weapon. The FBI later identified the ammunition as very rare Gecko 9mm armor piercing rounds.

The Investigation

The Los Angeles Police Department opened its homicide investigation within hours, and the FBI opened its own investigation shortly after. Despite dozens of witnesses at the scene, no one could give investigators a positive identification of the shooter. Neither the Impala nor the murder weapon was ever recovered.

Over the following decades, the investigation has produced a long line of theories. The most persistent has been that the killing was carried out in retaliation for the killing of Tupac Shakur and was ordered by Marion "Suge" Knight, the incarcerated CEO of Death Row Records. Retired LAPD detective Greg Kading, who worked the case in 2006, has publicly named a Compton Piru Blood associate named Wardell "Poochie" Fouse as the alleged shooter. Fouse was killed in 2003 and was never charged. In 2007, the Wallace family filed a $400 million wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, alleging that former LAPD officers David Mack and Rafael Perez had been involved in the murder. That lawsuit was later dropped. Both officers have denied any involvement.

The FBI closed its investigation in 2005 and released 359 pages of heavily redacted case files in 2011 under the Freedom of Information Act. The LAPD case remains officially open and unsolved. Because there is no statute of limitations on murder, charges could still theoretically be filed if new evidence emerges.

The Peterson Automotive Museum Today

The Petersen Automotive Museum is still located at 6060 Wilshire Boulevard, at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax Avenue, in the Miracle Mile section of Los Angeles. The museum reopened in December 2015 after a major $125 million renovation that added its distinctive red and stainless steel exterior. It remains one of the largest automotive museums in the world and hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

The exact location where Wallace was shot is on the north side of Wilshire Boulevard at its intersection with South Fairfax Avenue, at the edge of the museum's property. There is no permanent memorial at the site. The intersection remains a busy, active Los Angeles thoroughfare. Please be respectful of museum visitors, staff, and other pedestrians during your visit, stay on public sidewalks, and follow all posted traffic signage.