Los Angeles homicide detectives say a lack of cooperation by witnesses is hampering their efforts to solve the case, said The Times. Meanwhile, the rapper's family is growing increasingly frustrated and says authorities have bungled the investigation.
The 24-year-old Brooklyn rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed March 9 in front of hundreds of people after a music industry party at
the
Petersen Automotive Museum at the intersection of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, said The Times. He sat in the passenger seat of a sports-utility vehicle at a red light when a lone assassin in a dark Impala pulled up in the next lane and opened fire.
"I'm sick to my stomach over the way this case has been handled," Voletta Wallace told The Times Monday in a telephone interview from her New Jersey home. "There is a murderer out there laughing at my family and laughing at the cops. I've held my tongue for months now, but I'm fed up with the police just pussy-footing around." Los Angeles Police Department Detective Russell Poole, the lead investigator in the case, told The Times that detectives have interviewed more than 200 witnesses since March and chase leads on a daily basis.
"We are trying to do everything in our power to solve this murder. It's our top priority," he said, reports The Times. "I understand that Mrs. Wallace is upset, but I've tried to explain to her that you can't just throw a case like this together. You need eyewitnesses -- and we have none. We've interviewed hundreds of witnesses, and the majority of them are not being totally candid with us. It's very frustrating."
Law enforcement sources told The Times the investigation is still focusing on the likelihood that the rapper was gunned down over a financial dispute with a member of the Southside Crips -- possibly the result of an unpaid security bill.
The same Compton gang is believed to be connected to the Las Vegas slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur six months earlier.
Compiled by Channel 2000 Staff
Notorious B.I.G. Probe Grounds to Halt
Family Members Say Police Bungled Investigation
LOS ANGELES, Posted 7:50 a.m. December 16, 1997 -- The investigation into the murder of rap star Notorious B.I.G. appears to have ground to a halt, according to
The Los Angeles Times
.
The mother of the rap star Notorious says she's furious there have been no arrests for his slaying and suggested the LAPD may not care about catching the killers of young black men, the newspaper said. 
Wallace's wife, singer Faith Evans, and others close to the late rapper say they are reluctant to help detectives because LAPD investigators have treated them like suspects during past interviews, said The Times. Poole denies the allegations.