The Las Vegas Shooting

The Las Vegas Shooting

Tupac was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 7, 1996 after attending the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. He died in the University Medical Center hospital six days later from the four gunshot wounds.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Compton police, although they never officially solved the case, concluded that Shakur was shot by Southside Crips after the Tyson fight. Hours before the shooting, Tupac had been involved in a fight in the lobby of the MGM Hotel after the Tyson-Seldon fight. Shakur started the fight when he noticed 21-year-old "Baby Lane" Anderson, who had beaten up one of his bodyguards in a shopping mall a few weeks earlier, lingering nearby. Anderson and others were interviewed by police later in connection with the murder, though no suspects were ever publicly named.

Shakur and the crew at Death Row generally depended on members of the Bloods gang for security, while Biggie and the Bad Boy Crew depended on Crips members for security when visiting California. An investigation by the Las Vegas Times, while not naming its gang-member sources, stated that Biggie (who was also in town for the fight) offered to pay the Crips in exchange for Shakur's death. It was noted by the Compton Gang Unit that the Crips were bragging about the killing soon after returning to Compton. Compton Police were disappointed with the lack of initiative showed by Las Vegas police in pursuing the killing.

After the fight with Anderson, Tupac left the MGM Hotel, went to the hotel with his fiance, Kadida Jones. Then, he met up with Suge to go to Death Row's Club 662 in Las Vegas. The two drove together in Suge's 1996 black BMW sedan e38 7-series, part of a larger convoy of cars including some of Shakur's friends, the Outlawz, and bodyguards. Tupac was not wearing a bulletproof vest that night, even though Death Row had provided him with one. At 11:15 P.M., Suge's car stopped at an intersection on East Flamingo Road. A white Cadillac was seen pulling up to the passenger side of the car, and firing thirteen rounds into the car as Tupac attempted to climb to safety in the back seat. Tupac was hit four times, twice in the chest, and in his arm and thigh, while Suge was scratched by a piece of flying glass (while later claiming in an interview he had a bullet stuck in his head). Tupac then went on to live off of life support for 7 days and his mother finally had the plugs pulled on September 13, 1996 at 4:03 PM. After his death, Shakur was cremated, and his mother reportedly spread his ashes in L.A. saying that Tupac would want to be in the city he loved best.

The high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the attention of British filmmaker Nick Broomfield who made the documentary Biggie & Tupac, which examines the lack of progress in the case and the controversy and theories surrounding it by speaking to those close to Biggie, Tupac and the investigation.

Shakur's close childhood friend — and a member of the Outlawz — Yafeu "Kadafi" Fula, was in the convoy when the shooting happened and told police he might be able to identify the assailants. He, too, was killed shortly thereafter in New Jersey. Two teenagers took plea bargains and are serving time for Fula's murder. The eerie video for the single "I Ain't Mad at Cha", shot a month before his death, showed Tupac being shot and killed and later in heaven jamming with Billie Holiday, Donny Hathaway, Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Nat King Cole, Redd Foxx, Robert Johnson, and Sammy Davis Jr.