March 16, 1997

Report: Street gang probed in Shakur, B.I.G. killings

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A violent street gang with roots in Los Angeles is under investigation in the deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., Time magazine reported.

Police in Las Vegas believe a member of the Crips was responsible for the Sept. 7 drive-by shooting of Shakur near the Las Vegas Strip, Time said in its March 24th edition, due out this week.

The Crips gang also is the focus as police seek the killer of The Notorious B.I.G., also known as Christopher Wallace, Time said, citing sources it did not identify.

Shakur, 25, died six days after he was shot. Wallace was shot to death in Los Angeles on March 9 in another drive-by attack.

There had been speculation in the rap community that Wallace was killed in retaliation for Shakur's slaying and that the deaths were linked to a rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers.

Wallace, 24, was affiliated with Bad Boy Entertainment in New York City while Shakur recorded under the Death Row Records label in Los Angeles.

Death Row reportedly had links to the Bloods street gang - bitter rivals of the Crips.

Both gangs originally formed in Los Angeles but have affiliated "sets" around the nation.

Bad Boy artists hired Crips as bodyguards during Wallace's West Coast visit. That group of Crips is the focus of the LAPD investigation into his death, Time said.

No one was available Sunday to comment on the reports, said officers for the LAPD and Las Vegas Metro Police.

Last week, Las Vegas police said there was no evidence to link the slayings or to substantiate rumors that an East Coast-West Coast rivalry may be behind the killings.

Last month, Metro Homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning said three Los Angeles men were suspects in the Shakur slaying.

"But we still have no gun and no witnesses to identify the shooter," he said.

Meanwhile, several of Wallace's friends said the rapper suspected that FBI agents were monitoring him on his trip from New York City to Los Angeles.

And Mutulu Shakur, ex-husband of Tupac Shakur's mother, accused the FBI of trying to create a rift between East Coast and West Coast rappers.

"The wrath of the government has come to descend on the rap industry," said Mutulu, who is a 60-year prison sentence for his role in a 1981 armored-car robbery.

A duty agent at the FBI in New York said no one was available to comment Sunday.