On September 7, 1996, at 11:15 p.m. (PDT), Tupac Shakur, a 25-year-old American rapper, was shot in a drive-by shooting in Paradise, Nevada. The shooting occurred when the car carrying Shakur was stopped at a red light at East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. Shakur was struck by four rounds fired from a .40-caliber Glock 22 pistol — two in the chest, one in the arm and one in the thigh. The driver, Death Row Records executive Suge Knight, was struck in the head by bullet fragments. Shakur died from his injuries six days later.
Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson, a member of the South Side Compton Crips gang, was suspected in the murder but denied being involved and was never charged; he was killed in an unrelated gang shooting in 1998. On September 29, 2023, Duane "Keffe D" Davis, Anderson's uncle, was arrested after being indicted by a grand jury for first-degree murder of Shakur. On August 31, 2026, Davis was found guilty of murdering Shakur, and on October 13, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
Background
Shakur
Tupac Shakur was an American rapper born on June 16, 1971. His debut album, 2Pacalypse Now (1991), made him a prominent figure in West Coast hip-hop. His music featured a mix of gangsta rap and political themes, addressing topics such as racism, police brutality, gang violence and the war on drugs.
Shakur faced repeated criminal charges. In 1993, he was charged with two counts of aggravated assault for shooting two off-duty police officers, though the charges were later dropped. He was convicted of sexual assault in 1994 and served eight months in prison, but was released pending appeal in 1995. Following his release, he signed to Death Row Records, the label founded by Suge Knight.
East Coast–West Coast feud
The murder occurred at the height of the East Coast–West Coast hip-hop rivalry, a focal point of which was the feud between Shakur and the East Coast rapper Biggie "the Notorious B.I.G." Smalls. The two rappers were initially friends but had a falling out after Shakur was shot in a building where Smalls was recording in November 1994. Shakur accused Biggie and Sean Combs, the head of Smalls's label Bad Boy Records, of setting up or having prior knowledge of the shooting. In 1995, Shakur interpreted the release of the Smalls song "Who Shot Ya?" as a diss track targeting him, and later that year, Knight made a speech at the 1995 Source Awards in which Knight insulted Combs and Bad Boy.
In June 1996, Shakur released the diss track "Hit 'Em Up", which journalist Chuck Philips described as "a caustic anti-East Coast jihad in which the rapper threatens to eliminate Biggie, [Combs], and a slew of Bad Boy artists and other New York City acts". "Hit 'Em Up" is regarded as the feud's centerpiece and a turning point in which things were said and rapped that could never be taken back.
The publication of VIBE magazine's 1996 Juice issue, featuring Biggie and Combs on the cover along with the caption "East vs. West", was seen as an escalation of the rivalry.
Prior events
Orlando Anderson, a member of the South Side Compton Crips, had been in a feud with various employees of Death Row Records. In July 1996, Anderson and his crew mugged Death Row employee Trevon "Tre" Lane, a member of the rival Mob Piru Bloods, at a Foot Locker store at the Lakewood Mall in Lakewood, California and stole his company medallion, which is what caused Suge Knight's security team to target him later in Las Vegas. Anderson had been under intermittent surveillance by the Compton Police Department's gang unit due to his suspected involvement in localized gang warfare and multiple unsolved homicides in Compton. Gang investigators later noted that Anderson was being actively monitored during the summer of 1996 as a person of interest in regional gang shootouts.
On the evening of September 7, 1996, Shakur and Knight attended the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After leaving the match, Lane spotted Anderson in the MGM Grand lobby. Lane informed 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. Shakur and Knight's entourage assisted in assaulting Anderson. The fight, which was captured on the MGM Grand's video surveillance, was broken up by hotel security.
After the fight, Shakur returned to his hotel, the Luxor Las Vegas. He disclosed to his girlfriend, Kidada Jones, his involvement in the fight, having previously promised to return to her after entering the MGM Grand and having her stay in a vehicle. After changing clothes, Shakur left with Knight in a black 1996 BMW 750iL sedan and went to Club 662, which was owned by Knight, to perform at a charity concert. Minutes before the shooting, an acquaintance of Shakur, Leonard Jefferson, captured one of the last images of Shakur sitting 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 Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) bicycle patrol for playing their car stereo too loudly and not having license plates. The plates were found in the trunk of Knight's car, and 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, talking through the window of the BMW, exchanged words with the two women and invited them to go to Club 662.
At 11:15 p.m., a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac pulled up to Knight's right side. The shooter, seated at the back of the Cadillac, rolled down the window and rapidly fired gunshots at the BMW from a .40 S&W Glock 22 pistol. Shakur was hit four times: twice in the chest, once in the arm and once in the thigh. One of the bullets went into Shakur's right lung. 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 the Luxor. Alexander reported in his documentary, Tupac Shakur: Before I Wake..., that shortly after the shooting, one of the convoy's cars followed the assailant, but he never heard from the occupants. Yaki Kadafi and a team of bodyguards were riding in the car behind the BMW at the time of the shooting and, along with members of the Death Row entourage, refused to cooperate with police.
With a flat tire, Knight drove Shakur and himself a mile from the shooting site to the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. They were again pulled over by the LVMPD bike patrol, who alerted paramedics through radio. After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Knight and Shakur to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. They were pulled over just a short distance from the MGM Grand, where their evening had begun.
Gobi Rahimi, a Death Row music video director who visited Shakur at the hospital, later reported that he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the label and threatened Shakur. Gobi informed the LVMPD, but said they claimed to be understaffed. No attackers ever came to the hospital.
Aftermath
At the hospital, Shakur was placed on life support and 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". She told Shakur that she loved him.
Knight was released from the hospital the day following the shooting but did not speak until September 11. He told police he "heard something, but saw nothing" the night of the shooting. A spokesman for the LVMPD said Knight's statement did nothing to help the investigation. Police at the time of Shakur's hospitalization reported having no leads, with Sgt. Kevin Manning later stating that the LVMPD did not receive "a whole lot of cooperation" from Shakur's entourage.
Rahimi and members of Shakur's group, Outlawz, guarded Shakur's hospital room out of fear that whoever had shot Shakur was "gonna come finish him off". Rahimi mentioned the possibility that Outlawz brought weapons with them. On the afternoon of September 13, while in the critical care unit, 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.
In 2014, LVMPD officer Chris Carroll, one of the first police personnel to arrive at the scene and who witnessed Shakur's last moments, said the rapper refused to state who shot him. When Carroll asked Shakur if he saw the person or people who shot him, Shakur looked at him, took a breath and said "fuck you" as his last words.
Crips–Bloods conflict
On September 9, two days after the shooting, a violent gang war erupted in Compton between the South Side Crips and Mob Piru Bloods, resulting in twelve shootings and three fatalities. Former Compton detective Robert Ladd later described the conflict as "ten days of hell". Anderson's close friend, B.G. 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.
Investigation
Arrest of Orlando Anderson
On October 2, 300 Compton police officers searched the residences of known gang members and arrested Anderson. He was released immediately following his arrest after authorities declined to file charges for the murder of Shakur. Anderson further denied involvement in the murder, telling the Los Angeles Times in 1997 that he was a fan of Shakur.
On September 8, 1997, Anderson filed a lawsuit against Shakur's estate for the fight that occurred preceding the murder. Shakur's mother Afeni Shakur filed a wrongful death countersuit against Anderson. That legal battle was reportedly settled shortly before Anderson's death. On May 29, 1998, Anderson was involved in a shootout at a car wash in Compton, California, following a dispute with rival gang members. Anderson was struck in the chest and was pronounced dead. Detective Tim Brennan later stated that the shootout was the result of a dispute over drug money and was unrelated to the Shakur investigation.
While this was unfolding, Manning told Las Vegas Sun investigative reporter Cathy Scott that Shakur's murder "may never be solved" due to lack of cooperation from witnesses. E.D.I. Mean, a collaborator of Shakur and a member of Outlawz, later stated he was positive law enforcement knew "what happened" and added, "This is America. We found bin Laden."
Witnesses
At the time of the shooting, an entourage of around ten automobiles was following the BMW carrying Shakur and Knight. Knight stated during an ABC interview that he did not know who had killed Shakur but would never tell police if he did. Kadafi was involved in a scuffle with police two days following the shooting, after he protested their traffic stop of a motorist with whom he was acquainted. Kadafi left Las Vegas 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 himself later killed in a shooting in Orange, New Jersey, in November 1996.
In early 1997, Mean and Alexander told the Times that they had never been asked by the LVMPD to view a photo lineup in the case, despite having witnessed the shooting and having seen the men in the car from which the shots were fired. In an interview with Alexander conducted by the LVMPD 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. Alexander reported seeing the face of the suspect who shot Shakur. In a March 1997 police interview, Alexander said that he only saw the occupants of the shooter's car in "more of a profile". The LVMPD disputed the pair's account of what they had reported to police the night of the shooting.