Murder of Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur attended the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Suge Knight, the head of Death Row Records, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After leaving the match, one of Knight's associates, Trevon "Tre" Lane, a member of the Mob Pirus gang based in Compton, California, spotted Orlando Anderson, from the rival South Side Compton Crips gang, in the MGM Grand lobby. Earlier that year, in July 1996, Anderson and a group of South Side Crips attempted to steal Lane's Death Row medallion in the Foot Locker store at the Lakewood Center mall in Lakewood, California. Lane told Shakur, who in turn attacked Anderson in the lobby. Shakur asked Anderson if he was from the "South" (South Side Crips) and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. After the brawl, Shakur returned to his hotel, the Luxor Las Vegas. He disclosed to his girlfriend Kidada Jones his involvement in the Anderson fight, previously having promised to return to her after entering the MGM Grand and having her stay in a vehicle. Shakur left with Knight in a BMW sedan after changing clothes and went to Club 662, which was owned by Knight, to perform at a charity concert. Minutes before the shooting, Shakur's friend Leonard Jefferson captured an infamous image of him (one of the last images of Shakur) in the vehicle with Knight. ==Shooting==

At 11:00–11:05 p.m. (PDT), Shakur and Knight were halted on Las Vegas Boulevard by officers from the LVMPD (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) Bike Patrol for playing the car stereo too loudly and not having license plates. The plates were found in the trunk of Knight's car. The party was released a few minutes later without being cited. At 11:10 p.m., while they were stopped at a red light at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their left side. Shakur, who was talking through the window of a Deathrow owned 1996 BMW 750iL, exchanged words with the two women and invited them to go to Club 662. Knight was hit in the head by fragmentation. Shakur's bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with Shakur in Knight's car, Shakur asked him to drive Jones's car instead, in case they needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to their hotel. Alexander reported in his documentary, Before I Wake, that shortly after the assault, one of the convoy's cars followed the assailant, but he never heard from the occupants. Yaki Kadafi was riding in the car behind Shakur with bodyguards at the time of the shooting and, along with members of the Death Row entourage, refused to cooperate with police. Despite Knight's injuries and his vehicle having a flat tire, he was able to drive Shakur and himself a mile from the site to Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. They were again pulled over by the Bike Patrol, who alerted paramedics through radio. Gobi told Las Vegas police, but said they claimed to be understaffed. No attackers came to the hospital. Shakur said he was dying while being carried into the emergency room. == Aftermath ==

At the hospital, Shakur placed on life support machines, and was ultimately put under a medically-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of bed. He was visited by Jones and regained consciousness when she played Don McLean's "Vincent" on the CD player next to his bed. According to Jones, Shakur moaned, and his eyes were "filled with mucus and swollen". Jones told Shakur that she loved him. Knight was released from the hospital the day following the deadly shooting on September 8, but did not speak until three days later on September 11. He told officers he "heard something, but saw nothing" the night of the shooting. A spokesman for the officers said Knight's statement did nothing to help the investigation. Rahimi and members of Shakur's group, Outlawz, guarded Shakur while he stayed in the hospital due to their fear that whoever shot Shakur was "gonna come finish him off". Rahimi mentioned the possibility that Outlawz brought weapons with them. While in the critical care unit on the afternoon of Friday, September 13, 1996, Shakur died of respiratory failure that led to cardiac arrest after the removal of his right lung; he was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. Doctors attempted to revive him but could not stop the hemorrhaging. His mother, Afeni Shakur, made the decision to cease medical treatment. Paramedics and other officers present at the scene did not report hearing Shakur say those words, nor did Knight or Alexander, who were also present. ==Crips-Bloods Conflict==

On September 9, 1996, after the shooting of Shakur, a violent gang war erupted in the city of Compton between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru Bloods, resulting in 12 shootings and 3 deaths. Former Compton detective, Robert Ladd, described it as "10 Days of Hell." Orlando Anderson's close friend, BG Knocc Out, stated that Anderson was shot in the legs with an AK-47 because of the conflict and used a wheelchair for some time. On 2 October, 300 police officers swept down on the houses of known gang members in neighbours such as Compton mainly. The raid was to try to halt the warfare and also gave Compton police the opportunity to arrest Orlando. ==Investigative reports on the murder==

One year after the shooting, Sgt. Kevin Manning, who headed the investigation, told Las Vegas Sun investigative reporter Cathy Scott that Shakur's murder "may never be solved." The case slowed early in the investigation, he said, as few new clues came in and witnesses clammed up. Manning stated that the investigation was at a standstill. E.D.I. Mean, a collaborator of Shakur's and a member of Outlawz, said he was positive law enforcement knew "what happened" and added, "This is America. We found bin Laden." Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reported in 2011 that the FBI released documents as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request, revealing its investigation of the Jewish Defense League for extorting protection money from Shakur and other rappers after making death threats against them. In 2017, Knight claimed he might have been the target of the attack that killed Shakur, arguing that it was a hit on him as a staged coup to seize control of Death Row Records. == Witnesses ==

At the time of the shooting, an entourage of around ten automobiles was following Knight and Shakur's vehicle. The year following the shooting, Knight stated during an ABC Primetime Live interview that he did not know who had shot Shakur but would never tell officers if he did. Yaki Kadafi was involved in a scuffle with officers two days following the shooting, after they pulled over a motorist with whom he was acquainted, and he protested. Kadafi left Las Vegas days after Shakur's death, traveling to Atlanta and Los Angeles before settling in New Jersey, where his relatives lived. In that time, Compton investigators assembled mug shots of several gang members, which included Anderson, and hand-delivered them to Las Vegas. Manning said detectives called Kadafi's lawyer to set up a meeting with the rapper so that he could be shown the pictures. According to Manning, the calls were not returned. Officers did not try to locate Kadafi, who was fatally shot in a housing project in Irvington, New Jersey, in November 1996, two months after Shakur's shooting. E.D.I Mean and Alexander told the Times in early 1997 that they had never been asked by Las Vegas police to view photos of possible suspects in the case, despite having observed the shooting and having seen the men in the car from which the shots were fired. In an interview with Alexander conducted by Las Vegas police on March 19, 1997, he was shown a series of eight photo lineups, but was unable to identify any suspects from them. Mean claimed to have seen all four men in the vehicle, while Alexander reported seeing the face of the suspect who shot Shakur. In his March 1997 police interview, Alexander said that he only saw the occupants of the shooter's car in "more of a profile." Las Vegas police disputed the pair's account of what they had reported to the officers the night of the shooting. In the USA Network documentary Unsolved, broadcast in 2018, Duane "Keefe D" Davis, a Crips gang leader in California and Anderson's uncle, claimed to have been in the car, specifically in the front passenger seat, with Tupac's murderer when the shots were fired. He declined to name the shooter, citing "street code." Despite this, he stated that the car was driven by Terrence "T-Brown" Brown and that Anderson and DeAndrae "Dre" Smith were sitting in the backseat of the car, all of whom were South Side Compton Crips and are now deceased. He also stated that the shooter was sitting in the backseat. In 2016, a M.O.B. Piru and former Death Row bodyguard named James "Mob James" McDonald claimed he saw Anderson and other South Side Crips pull up near Club 662 in a white Cadillac and were briefly parked nearby prior to the shooting of Suge's BMW. According to Radar Online, Keefe D stated that after waiting near Club 662, they went to a Liquor Barn store and they then proceeded to make their way to The Carriage House hotel. On their way there, they noticed the Death Row caravan. ==Arrest and trial of Duane Davis==

On July 18, 2023, the Las Vegas Police Department executed a search warrant in connection with Shakur's murder. The search was conducted in a home in Henderson, Nevada, and it was stated that the search was connected to the investigation into Shakur's death. It was later revealed that the home belonged to the wife of Duane "Keefe D" Davis. Davis was subsequently arrested in connection with Tupac's murder on the morning of September 29, 2023. He was held without bail and charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty on November 2, 2023, in Las Vegas. On November 7, 2023, Judge Carli Kierny for the Clark County District Court scheduled for Davis' trial to begin on June 3, 2024. On January 9, 2024, during a court status check, Davis was granted $750,000 bail and allowed house arrest. A second status check was held on February 20, 2024, during which it was agreed that Davis' trial would be delayed to November 4, 2024. During the grand jury hearing, a South Side Compton Crips gang affiliate testified that it was DeAndrae Smith who was the shooter, not Orlando Anderson. He stated, On February 18, 2025, Davis' trial was delayed until February 9, 2026. On August 5, 2025, Davis opted to change defense attorneys for his murder trial. As of September 2025, Davis still remained incarcerated at Clark County Detention Center. At this time, it was also reported that Davis was now incarcerated at Nevada's High Desert State Prison, where he is serving prison time for his jailhouse fight conviction. On July 2, 2025, Davis was denied a request for a new trial. Though not connected to the murder of Tupac Shakur, the hearing for a new trial in this separate case underscored the high-profile status of both Davis and the upcoming murder trial. In November 2025, it was reported that Davis, who at the time of his September 2025 conviction was still incarcerated at Clark County Detention Center, was now serving his prison sentence for this conviction at Nevada's High Desert State Prison. ==Speculated link with Sean Combs==

In October 2024, reports surfaced that the family of Tupac Shakur had hired an investigator to see if the murder could be linked to Sean "Diddy" Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records. It was claimed by former LAPD detective Greg Kading and journalist Chuck Philips that the Southside Crips were offered a $1 million bounty to kill Knight and Shakur. However, the two accounts differ on whether the bounty was offered by Sean Combs (as reported by Kading) or by The Notorious B.I.G. (as reported by Philips). There was also a rumour in the mid-1990s, after Shakur's death and also claimed by Tupac's friend Danny Boy, that Diddy offered a bounty of $10,000 to $75,000 on Death Row chains. Meanwhile, an individual lawsuit alleged that Combs raped a woman in 2018 with a remote control after she made a comment suggesting that Combs was involved in the murder of Shakur. ==See also==