Russell Poole, detective who alleged police involvement in Notorious B.I.G.’s murder, has died

Russell Poole, the retired LAPD detective who alleged police involvement in the death of rapper Notorious B.I.G., has died. Poole died Wednesday of a suspected heart attack.

Russell Poole’s death

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies at the Homicide Bureau reported that Russell Poole collapsed Wednesday morning, according to a sheriff’s department official. He was meeting with detectives about a cold case when he collapsed and was unresponsive. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he died, the coroner’s office said.

Notorious B.I.G unsolved murder

Poole worked on the rapper’s death for about a year, according to a Times archive.

The 24-year-old rapper, born Christopher Wallace and known also as Notorious B.I.G., was shot to death while sitting in a car at a red light in Mid-Wilshire on March 9, 1997.

His death spurred many conspiracies, one of them was that somehow rapper Tupac’s murder was connected to his, because they and their respective record companies were seen as rivals.

Russell Poole’s theory on Notorious B.I.G’s death

Poole advanced the theory that Wallace’s death came from a plot involving a corrupt LAPD detective and Marion “Suge” Knight, who headed Shakur’s company when Shakur was killed. Wallace’s killing was retaliation, Poole suggested.

Suge Knight is now currently in jail awaiting a possible murder trial in a separate incident and was never implicated in Wallace’s killing.

Times archives show that Poole quit the police force in 1999 after a series of disputes over the direction of multiple investigations, including Wallace’s murder.

Neither Wallace’s or Shakur’s death has been solved.