Officer Suspended for Guarding Slain Rap Star

An off-duty Inglewood police officer who provided security for Notorious B.I.G. on the night of the rap star’s slaying was suspended for 24 days Tuesday for not getting authorization to perform the work, sources said.

Five other off-duty Inglewood officers who also provided unauthorized protection for the rapper on the night before his slaying were given written reprimands, sources said. The officers’ names have not been released.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles detectives are making progress in the investigation of the killing, pursuing new leads about a link between a New York friend of the slain rapper and a Compton street gang, sources said. Investigators are expected to return to New York next week to try to locate and interview a Harlem drug dealer who is believed to have introduced the rapper to members of a Compton street gang.

Police refused to discuss the case, but sources say the investigation is still focusing on the likelihood that the rapper was gunned down over a personal dispute with a Compton gang member.

A Compton man whose vehicle was impounded last month in connection with the case has told police that he met Notorious B.I.G. nearly two years before the rapper was slain, sources said. The owner of the impounded car, who is listed in police files as a gang member, also told police that he attended the industry party on the night of the rapper’s killing, sources said.

Although police have not returned the impounded vehicle, sources say investigators told the man that he is not a suspect in the March 9 killing of the rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace. No arrests have been made in the case.