True Crime Files: Shooting death of Tupac Shakur

By Gina Silva Published March 11True Crime FilesFOX 11

https://www.foxla.com/news/true-crime-files-shooting-death-of-tupac-shakur

LOS ANGELES - Even in death, Tupac Shakur is one of the best-selling musicians of all time, selling about 75 million albums worldwide.

On September 7, 1996, the hip-hop legend was gunned down in Las Vegas. He was only 25 when he was shot and killed.

Footage from our True Crime Files shows Shakur being hit four times in a drive-by shooting. He died six days after the shooting on September 13.

Retired LAPD detective Greg Kading investigated the murders of both Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur. He explained the beef between west coast and east coast rappers.

"What was the war all about?" asked FOX 11's Gina Silva.

"A lot of it was hubris," Kading explained. "With their extremely successful record labels and there's just this competition to some degree."

The west coast had Death Row Records, led by music mogul Suge Knight. Over in the east coast, Sean Combs then known as "Puff Daddy" had Bad Boys Records. Kading explained the war between the two camps went from trash talk to murder real fast.

"The violence behind the conflict all started in Atlanta, when one of Suge Knight’s bodyguards was shot and killed by one of Puffy Combs bodyguards," Kading said.

Before Shakur was shot in Las Vegas, he was captured on security video walking through the MGM lobby with his entourage. Suddenly, they all started attacking a man, later identified as Orlando Anderson.

Kading says, a few months earlier, Anderson had tried to snatch a Death Row chain from Shakur’s friend.

"Tupac takes it upon himself to run over and sucker-punch Orlando. And that puts into motion, the effort to kill Tupac and Suge," the former detective said.

Shortly after 11 p.m. that same night in Vegas, Kading says Anderson and his crew exacted their revenge.

How does Kading know that for sure? Because in 2009, LAPD obtained a confession from Anderson's uncle Duane Keith Davis, also known as "Keefe D."

"We always suspected that he was somehow involved. And so we had built this massive federal drug case against him so that we'd have some have leverage and we brought him in," Kading said. "Do you want to sit down and talk to us about what you know about one of these two murders or both of the murders? He says, 'I can't tell you anything about Biggie. That wasn’t us, but I can certainly tell you what happened with Tupac because that was us and I was there and I participated in it.'"

Kading says Davis confessed to giving Anderson a gun and that Anderson was the one who had pulled the trigger. But by the time, the LAPD obtained this confession… it was too late.

Orlando Anderson was shot and killed in Compton in 1998, making the accused shooter not prosecutable. Keefe D has the proffer agreement, essentially protection from self-incrimination and the other guys in the car being dead.

Murder Rap is a book Kading wrote about the untold story of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur murder investigations. Kading says he’s confident the LAPD solved both murder cases and although no one has been prosecuted, Kading believes, street justice was served.

"The person that shot and killed Biggie was himself shot and killed. It was almost perfect justice," the former detective said. "The guy that shot and killed Tupac Shakur was himself gunned down in the street in the same violent way that he exerted upon Tupac. So there's like this divine justice issue."

As for Suge Knight, Kading offers the following thought:

"I think everything caught up to him," Kading said. "He may not have been held accountable for Biggie's murder but nonetheless, he's where he should be."

True Crime Files: Who shot Biggie Smalls? Retired LAPD detective reveals what he knows

By Gina Silva

Published March 3True Crime FilesFOX 11

https://www.foxla.com/news/true-crime-files-who-shot-biggie-smalls

He's remembered by many as one of the greatest rappers of all time.

The death of Christopher Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, shocked the world after he was ambushed in the streets of Los Angeles during a visit on March 9, 1997.

In a video from our FOX 11 True Crime Files, the other vehicle is seen pulling up alongside and the driver shoots numerous times into an SUV occupied by Biggie Smalls. The drive-by shooting took place just outside the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard and South Fairfax Avenue.

The hip-hop superstar was shot multiple times while sitting on the front passenger side of the SUV. There were plenty of witnesses but no one could give an accurate description of the shooter.

Biggie Smalls' death came about six months after rival and fellow hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in Las Vegas. The two larger-than-life artists were the faces of the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry in hip-hop. Biggie Smalls was a Brooklyn native who was with Diddy's Bad Boy Records and Shakur represented the west coast with Marion "Suge" Knight's Death Row Records.

"I was assigned to Biggie's case as a result of a re-investigative effort by the LAPD," said retired detective Greg Kading.

Kading was assigned in 2006 to the Biggie case after several leads had gone cold, including a lawsuit against LAPD alleging that officers David Mack and Rafael Perez were involved in the murder and a coverup. That lawsuit was later dropped.

"It's been so many years. Why hasn't this case been solved?" Asked FOX 11's Gina Silva.

"If you were to ask me, I would say that it is solved," Kading said. "I would say that it's solved but unprosecuted.

WHO SHOT BIGGIE SMALLS?

After years of investigating this case, Kading says he can finally prove what many music fans had long suspected. The Notorious B.I.G. was murdered in retaliation to Shakur's shooting death.

Kading alleges the hit was ordered from inside county jail.

"At the time Biggie Smalls was killed, Suge Knight was in the county jail, so in order for him to communicate with someone on the street, he had to go through an intermediary who was this female who was visiting him in jail," the retired LAPD detective said.

On May 29, 2009, LAPD and FBI documented that woman's statement. Her identity is being protected, Kading says. She worked out an agreement that nothing would be used against her.

"While she's telling us, you know she's got tears in her eyes," Kading recalled. "She's clearly frightened."

Kading says the woman would visit Knight pretending to be a legal assistant.

"That allows her to go in and sit down with Suge and have unmonitored visits. Deputies can't stand over, listen on the phone, they can't stand there and overhear the conversation. So that's how it was set up so that she could have confidential conversations. So that’s how it was set up so she could have confidential conversations."

A statement issued by LAPD says, "During more than one of these visits, Knight instructed [REDACTED] to help him coordinate the murder of Christopher Wallace."

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"She said that Suge told her, 'I want you to get a hold of Poochie. Figure out what type of money it's going to cost and tell him that this is what I want done.' So she then there's a series of meetings she goes in meet with Poochie, they agree on an amount should make the arrangement for that money to get transferred. She pays Poochie, and he goes and sets himself up at the Petersen Auto Museum and shoots and kills Biggie."

Wardell "Poochie" Fouse, also known as Darnell Bolton, was spotted hanging out with several friends, including Knight.

"We knew he was somebody that was dangerous. Someone capable of doing these things. But we didn’t know it was him until the other co-conspirator confesses," Kading said.

And by that time, it was too late. Fouse had died in 2003. He was killed in an unrelated gang shooting.

No charges have ever been filed against Suge Knight in Biggie Smalls' death.

'I CERTAINLY THINK IT IS A CLOSED CASE'

Kading says he's extremely disappointed that LAPD hasn't officially closed this case.

"I certainly think it's a closed case and they ought to satisfy history by saying, 'These are the facts.,'" he added. "And this is why we can't prosecute it but it is solved."

"You met with Biggie's mom. How do you feel about her and what she's gone through?" Silva asked.

"I love Valetta Wallace. From the very beginning, me and my partner, that was our sole motivation: to give her the answers that she deserved," Kading replied. "I wish we could have given her the ultimate satisfaction in the case."

The LAPD declined FOX 11's request for an interview. We were told, this is still an open case.

As for Suge Knight, in 2015. he was sentenced to 28 years in prison for an unrelated crime. We reached out to him for comment on this story but never heard back.