similar to Shakur's

By Cathy Scott
LAS VEGAS SUN

The weekend killing of drug-dealer-turned-rap-artist Notorious B.I.G. in Los Angeles mirrors last year's fatal shooting of rap star Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.

Notorious B.I.G., a rap artist who turned his crack-dealing past into a platinum-selling recording career, is the second major rapper to be killed in what some are calling retaliation shootings.

Notorious B.I.G., born Christopher Wallace who also went by Biggie Smalls, was shot to death early Sunday in Los Angeles as he sat in the passenger seat of his GMC Suburban while leaving a crowded midtown party. Wallace was 24. His utility vehicle was punctured by at least five bullets in the gang-style attack.

Wallace's death resembles the killing of Shakur, who was gunned down in a car-to-car shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7. Shakur, 25, died six days later. Both were killed after attending high-profile events.

Wallace was taken in his vehicle by a witness to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. No arrests were made, and police continued to interview witnesses today.

Wallace was attending a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum, in the Wilshire district known as Miracle Mile, in celebration of the 11th annual Soul Train Music Awards staged Friday, according to Kevin Kim, who witnessed the shooting with Wallace's estranged wife, Faith Evans.

Wallace was shot at 12:35 a.m. Police said the shooting occurred after the fire department had closed the party because the museum had been too crowded, and the guests had begun to disperse.

"Someone just rolled by and started shooting," said Kim, who was standing with Evans, a singer who is the mother of Wallace's child and pregnant with his twins.

The bullet-riddled vehicle bore stickers reading "Think B.I.G. March 25, 1997" -- a reference to the upcoming release of his double-album "Life After Death ... 'Til Death Do Us Part."

When Shakur was killed, he also was about to release "Makaveli," an album in which he rapped about his own death.

There was bad blood between the rappers. Many of Shakur's supporters believed Notorious B.I.G. -- a 6-foot, 300-pounder from Brooklyn -- was behind Shakur's death and a 1994 shooting Shakur survived in New York City.

Shakur bragged in explicit language in his "Hit Em Up" song that he had dated Wallace's wife. He threatened Wallace and Sean "Puffy" Combs in the same song.

Shakur recorded on Marion "Suge" Knight's Death Row label, which was a rival of Bad Boy Entertainment, run by Combs, and Wallace's record label. Wallace was conspicuously absent from a well-publicized "rap summit" called in Harlem after Shakur's slaying.

Metro homicide Sgt. Kevin Manning said today that Wallace's death "resembles about 90 percent of drive-by shootings."

He said he knew of reports that Shakur had accused Wallace of involvement in the 1994 robbery in which Shakur was shot five times and lost $40,000 in jewelry.

"We still don't have a suspect in the (Shakur) shooting, and anything is possible," Manning said. As of this morning, Los Angeles police had not contacted Manning about Wallace's death, he said.

Shakur died after a gunman in a car pulled alongside him on East Flamingo Road and opened fire into the passenger seat, where Shakur was sitting in a car driven by Knight. Police have said they believe Shakur was the only target.

Police in Los Angeles also believe Wallace was the only target.

Since Shakur's death, speculation has intensified about whether Shakur's killing was in retaliation for the beating of Orlando Anderson at the MGM Grand hotel-casino after the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight boxing match. Knight and Shakur, along with about six others, were seen on surveillance video kicking and beating Anderson.

Speculation has included whether the shooting was in retaliation for the beating, whether it was part of a Crips-Blood street gang war, or whether it stemmed from the feud between Shakur and Wallace. A member of Shakur's entourage, Yafua Fula, a witness who told Metro homicide detectives he could identify the shooter, was shot to death in northern New Jersey two months after Shakur's death.

Wallace burst onto the rap scene three years ago with his first album, "Ready to Die," blending firsthand accounts of misdeeds. Shakur also publicly accused Wallace of copying his style.

Robert Payne, a security guard at a high-rise office building across the street, said, "All of a sudden, I heard about five or six shots -- pow, pow, pow, pow, pow."

Payne said some passengers in the dark-green vehicle, which had been moving erratically before the shooting, had jumped out and then back in before the vehicle sped away.

SUN WIRE services contributed to this report.