He was shot 4 times, but it was the fourth bullet that got him

Dec 8, 2012 09:15 GMT  ·  By

24-year-old Christopher Wallace's autopsy reveals riveting details about how the rap singer, a.k.a Notorious B.I.G., passed.

Wallace was shot 4 times in his chest, shoulder, leg, forearm and scrotum. The first three bullets wounded him, but didn't reach areas that would have turned the injuries deadly.

The first shot got him in the left forearm, while the second bullet exited his body, having gone in through his back, in the shoulder area. A third bullet entered his left thigh from the exterior and went through his leg, exiting through the inner thigh, and perforating his scrotum.

"The projectile strikes the left side of the scrotum, causing a very shallow, 3/8 inch linear laceration," the coroner writes.

Reports say he was sitting in the passenger seat of a Chevy Suburban when he was shot in a drive-by, on Wilshire Blvd, in Los Angeles, in 1997.

His identity had not been confirmed when the medical examiner's officer performed the autopsy. In the "Other Pertinent Information" section the examiner simply wrote "Decedent may be rap singer."

According to autopsy reports published by TMZ, B.I.G. was killed by the fourth bullet, which came in contact with vital organs, entering his body through his hip. Wallace's colon, liver, heart and the upper lobe of his left lung were hit.

When EMTs arrived at the scene, they immediately transported him to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Not even an emergency thoracotomy could save his life.

B.I.G. was shot through the Suburban passenger door. As he was being carried on a gurney at the hospital, the staff found two of the bullets on the gurney. A third one was discovered as the rapper was turned over, when he was pronounced dead.

Other information listed in the autopsy report included his height, at 6 feet 1 inch (185.42 cm), and his weight of a staggering 395 lbs (179 kg). He was put down as "morbidly obese" by the coroner.