LAS VEGAS -- The city's neon lights vibrated in the
polished hood of the black BMW as it cruised up Las
Vegas Boulevard.
The man in the passenger seat was instantly
recognizable. Fans lined the streets, waving,
snapping photos, begging Tupac Shakur for his
autograph. Cops were everywhere, smiling.
The BMW 750 sedan, with rap magnate Marion
"Suge" Knight at the wheel, was leading a procession
of luxury vehicles past the MGM Grand Hotel and
Caesars Palace, on their way to a hot new nightclub.
It was after 11 on a Saturday night--Sept. 7, 1996.
The caravan paused at a crowded intersection a
block from the Strip.
Shakur flirted with a carful of women--unaware that
a white Cadillac had quietly pulled up beside him. A
hand emerged from the Cadillac. In it was a
semiautomatic pistol, aimed straight at Shakur.
Many of the rapper's lyrics seemed to foretell this
moment.
"The fast life ain't everything they told ya," he sang
in an early hit, "Soulja's Story."
"Never get much older, following the tracks of a
soulja."
*
Six years later, the killing of the world's most famous
rap star remains officially unsolved. Las Vegas
police have never made an arrest. Speculation and
wild theories continue to flourish in the music media
and among Shakur's followers. One is that Knight,
owner of Shakur's record label, arranged the killing
so he could exploit the rapper's martyrdom
commercially. Another persistent legend is that
Shakur faked his own death to escape the pressures
of stardom.
A yearlong investigation by The Times reconstructed
the crime and the events leading up to it. Evidence
gathered by the paper indicates:
* The shooting was carried out by a Compton gang
called the Southside Crips to avenge the beating of
one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier.
* Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had
attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police
discounted Anderson as a suspect and interviewed
him only once, briefly. He was later killed in an
unrelated gang shooting.
* The murder weapon was supplied by New York
rapper Notorious B.I.G., who agreed to pay the
Crips $1 million for killing Shakur. Notorious B.I.G.
and Shakur had been feuding for more than a year,
exchanging insults on recordings and at award shows
and concerts. B.I.G. was gunned down six months
later in Los Angeles. That killing also remains
unsolved.
Before they died, Notorious B.I.G. and Anderson
denied any role in Shakur's death. This account of
what they and others did that night is based on police
affidavits and court documents as well as interviews
with investigators, witnesses to the crime and
members of the Southside Crips who had never
before discussed the killing outside the gang.
Fearing retribution, they agreed to be interviewed
only if their names were not revealed.
Revolutionary Upbringing
The slaying silenced one of modern music's most
eloquent voices--a ghetto poet whose tales of urban
alienation captivated young people of all races and
backgrounds. The 25-year-old Shakur had helped
elevate rap from a crude street fad to a complex art
form, setting the stage for the current global hip-hop phenomenon.
Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in 1971 into a family of black revolutionaries and
named after a martyred Incan warrior. Radical politics shaped his upbringing and
the rebellious tone of much of his music.
His godfather, Black Panther leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, spent 27 years in
prison for a robbery-murder in Santa Monica that he insisted he did not commit.
Pratt was freed after a judge ruled in 1997 that prosecutors concealed evidence
favorable to the defendant.
Shakur's stepfather, Black Panther leader Mutulu Shakur, was on the FBI's Ten
Most Wanted list until the early 1980s, when he was imprisoned for robbery and
murder. His mother, Afeni Shakur, also a Black Panther, was charged with
conspiring to blow up a block of New York department stores--and acquitted a
month before the rapper was born.
Shakur grew up in tough neighborhoods and homeless shelters in the Bronx,
Harlem and Baltimore. He exhibited creative talent as a child and was admitted
to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied ballet, poetry, theater and
literature.
In 1988, his mother sent him to live with a family friend in the Bay Area to
escape gang violence in Baltimore. Living in a tough neighborhood north of
Oakland, he joined the rap group Digital Underground and signed a solo record
deal in 1991.
Shakur's debut album, "2Pacalypse Now," sparked a political firestorm. The
lyrics were filled with vivid imagery of violence by and against police. A car thief
who murdered a Texas state trooper said the lyrics incited him to kill. Law
enforcement groups and politicians denounced Shakur. Then-Vice President Dan
Quayle said the rapper's music "has no place in our society."
Shakur's recordings explored gang violence, drug dealing, police brutality, teenage
pregnancy, single motherhood and racism. As his stature as a rapper grew, he
pursued an acting career, drawing admiring reviews for his performances in
"Juice" and other films.
But he never put what he called the "thug life" behind him.
During a 1993 concert in Michigan, he attacked a local rapper with a baseball bat
and was sentenced to 10 days in jail. In Los Angeles, he was convicted of
assaulting a music video producer. In New York, a 19-year-old fan accused
Shakur and three of his friends of sexually assaulting her.
While on trial in that case, the rapper was ambushed in a Manhattan recording
studio, shot five times and robbed of his gold jewelry. Shakur later said Notorious
B.I.G. and his associates were behind the attack.
Shakur, convicted of sexual abuse, was serving a 4 1/2-year prison term when he
was visited by Suge Knight, founder of Death Row Records in Los Angeles.
Knight offered to finance an appeal of his conviction if Shakur would sign a
recording contract with Death Row.
Shakur accepted the offer and was released from prison in 1995 on a $1.4-million
appellate bond posted by Knight. Hours later, Shakur entered a Los Angeles
studio to record "All Eyez on Me." The double CD sold more than 5 million
copies, transforming Shakur into a pop superstar whose releases outsold
Madonna's and the Rolling Stones'.
Two Fights
On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur, still out on bond, traveled to Las Vegas to attend a
championship boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at the MGM
Grand Hotel.
The sold-out arena was jammed with high rollers: Wall Street tycoons,
Hollywood celebrities, entertainment moguls. The fight also attracted an
assortment of underworld figures: mobsters from Chicago, drug dealers from
New York, street gangs from Los Angeles.
Shakur arrived around 8:30 p.m. accompanied by armed bodyguards from the
Mob Piru Bloods, a Compton street gang whose members worked for Knight's
Death Row Records. Shakur and Knight sat in the front row, smoking cigars,
signing autographs and waving to fans.
"Knock You Out," a song Shakur had written in honor of Tyson, blasted over the
loudspeakers as the boxer entered the ring. Tyson flattened his opponent so
quickly that many patrons never made it to their seats.
After congratulating Tyson, Shakur, Knight and a handful of bodyguards in silk
suits headed for the exit. In the MGM Grand lobby, one of Shakur's Bloods
bodyguards noticed a member of the rival Southside Crips lingering near a bank
of elevators.
The Bloods and Crips have a 30-year history of turf wars: beatings, drug heists,
drive-by shootings. The Crips dress in blue, the Bloods in red. When the two
gangs aren't pushing dope or terrorizing citizens, they take pride in retaliating
against each other.
The hoodlum standing in the lobby was Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, 21, a
Crip who had recently helped his gang beat and rob one of Shakur's bodyguards
at a mall in Lakewood. Anderson had a string of arrests for robbery, assault and
other offenses. Compton police suspected him in at least one gang killing.
After the beating of Shakur's bodyguard, Anderson had dared to rip a rare Death
Row medallion from the man's neck--an affront to Knight's honor and a slight to
the Bloods.
The Bloods had been fuming for weeks, waiting to exact their revenge. Now,
unexpectedly, there was Anderson, standing before them.
Shakur charged the Crip. "You from the South?" he asked.
Before Anderson could answer, Shakur punched him. His bodyguards jumped in,
pounding and kicking Anderson to the ground. Knight joined in too--just before
security guards broke up the 30-second melee, which was captured by a security
camera.
Shakur and his entourage stomped triumphantly across the casino floor on their
way out of the hotel. They walked half a block down the Strip to the Luxor hotel,
where Death Row Records had booked more than a dozen rooms. After
dropping off Shakur and the bodyguards, Knight drove about 15 minutes to a
mansion he owned in a gated community in the city's southeastern valley.
The plan was to regroup later at a benefit concert for a youth boxing program
featuring Shakur and other Death Row acts. The midnight concert was to be
held at Club 662, a nightspot just opened by Death Row. The club's name was an
emblem of how gangs had infiltrated the rap business. On a telephone keypad,
662 spells "mob."
Planning a Retaliation
A bruised and shaken Anderson gathered himself off the floor in front of dozens
of startled onlookers. MGM security guards and Las Vegas police tried to
persuade him to file a complaint against his assailants, but he declined.
Anderson headed out to the Strip and crossed over a pedestrian bridge to the
Excalibur Hotel, where he had checked in with his girlfriend. News of the
beating swept through the gang underground. Before he reached his room,
Anderson's pager was beeping with calls from his Crips cohorts, according to
what he later told associates.
Anderson phoned his comrades and set up a meeting at the Treasure Island
hotel. He changed his clothes and hopped into a taxi, heading for the hotel with
the huge neon skull and crossbones out front.
Treasure Island had served as a Crips headquarters during boxing matches for
years. The gang would rent a fleet of luxury vehicles, ride across the desert in a
caravan, hand their keys to the valets and head to a block of rooms booked under
fake names. Drug trafficking paid for all this.
The ritual had little to do with boxing. Many gang members never attended the
fights. They came to party and bask in the post-fight revelry: the drinking, the
gambling, the drugs, the prostitutes. Other street gangs followed suit, flying in
from Harlem and Atlanta, taking over establishments up and down the Strip.
By the time Anderson's taxi reached Treasure Island, more than a dozen
gangsters were holed up in a Crips-reserved room. Marijuana smoke clouded the
hallway. Alcohol was flowing as Anderson opened the door. The gang was
furious. The topic of discussion: Who gets to pull the trigger?
According to people who were present, the Crips decided to shoot Shakur after
his performance at Club 662. The plan was to station two vehicles of armed
Crips outside the nightspot and lie in wait.
The gang put in a call to a Crips hide-out in Las Vegas, a rented house used to
stash drugs and firearms and shelter gang members on the run from crimes
committed in Los Angeles. They told a man there to bring some backup weapons
over to the hotel. Soon.
Killers for Hire
For the Crips, the beating of Anderson was an egregious affront warranting swift
and fatal retaliation. Still, the Crips thought, why not make a little money while
they were at it? They decided to ask Shakur's biggest enemy to pay for the hit.
The gang arranged a rendezvous with Notorious B.I.G. The Brooklyn rapper,
whose real name was Christopher Wallace, hated Shakur and had been feuding
with him for more than a year.
Once tight friends, the two entertainers now ridiculed each other at events, in
interviews and on recordings. In one song called "Hit 'Em Up," Shakur bragged
about having sex with Wallace's wife and vowed to kill him. The threats between
the rappers and their labels, Death Row and Bad Boy Entertainment, escalated
into a series of assaults and shootings--one of which resulted in the killing of a
Death Row bodyguard in Atlanta in 1995.
Fearing for his safety, a friend of Wallace's arranged for the Crips to supply
bodyguards for the rapper whenever he traveled west. Over the years, the gang
was paid to provide security for Wallace at casinos in Las Vegas, clubs in
Hollywood and award shows in Los Angeles. Besides cash, Wallace gave the
gang access to stars, groupies and the inner sanctums of the music business.
Wallace began flashing Crips gang signs and calling out to the homies at
concerts, sometimes even inviting gang members on stage. Privately, he prodded
the gang to kill Shakur--and promised to pay handsomely for the hit.
On Sept. 7, 1996, the Crips decided to take him up on the offer.
They sent an emissary to a penthouse suite at the MGM, where Wallace was
booked under a false name. In Vegas to party, he didn't attend the Tyson-Seldon
fight but had quickly learned about Shakur's scuffle with Anderson. Wallace
gathered a handful of thugs and East Coast rap associates to hear what the Crips
had to say.
According to people who were present, the Crips envoy explained that the gang
was prepared to kill Shakur but expected to collect $1 million for its efforts.
Wallace agreed, on one condition, a witness said. He pulled out a loaded
.40-caliber Glock pistol and placed it on the table in front of him.
He didn't just want Shakur dead. He wanted the satisfaction of knowing the fatal
bullet came from his gun.
On the Strip
It was a gangsta rap parade. Fans waved. Women flirted and asked for
autographs. Photographers snapped pictures.
Knight was leading a caravan of at least five Death Row cars heading toward
Club 662. Shakur and Knight turned heads as the convoy proceeded slowly north
on Las Vegas Boulevard.
Around 11 p.m., police stopped Knight for cranking the black BMW's stereo too
loud and not properly displaying its license plates. Shakur and Knight joked with
the officers and talked them out of issuing a ticket. Then the BMW turned right
on Flamingo Road and headed east toward the club.
Moments earlier, Anderson and three other Crips took an elevator down to the
Treasure Island lobby. They walked out into the valet parking area.
Hovering under the hotel's skull-and-crossbones logo, the four Crips waited
silently as the valet brought out a 1996 white Cadillac and opened the doors.
They piled in and eased the sleek new sedan into traffic. A fifth Crip in an old
yellow Cadillac met them at the curb and followed close behind. He rode solo,
with an AK-47 assault rifle lying across the front seat.
The traffic in front of Treasure Island was bumper to bumper. Cars honked.
Billboards flashed. Neon-lighted fountains trickled nearby.
The driver of the white Cadillac lighted a cigarette. Behind him sat Anderson.
The Crip in the front passenger seat handed Anderson the loaded Glock from
Notorious B.I.G. The four men discussed staking out the club where Shakur
would perform.
After waiting at a stoplight between Caesars Palace and the Barbary Coast
hotel, the Cadillacs turned onto Flamingo and headed east toward Club 662.
As they passed the Bally's hotel on the right, the driver saw a caravan of luxury
cars ahead on the left. The vehicles, packed with Mob Piru Bloods and Death
Row employees, were stopped at a red light across from the Maxim Hotel. The
crosswalk was filled with tourists.
Leading the convoy was Knight's black BMW. Shakur was in the passenger
seat. They were alone in the car, unarmed.
The Crips couldn't believe their luck. They decided to chuck their plan and strike
immediately.
The Cadillac raced up on the convoy and pulled up beside the BMW. Shakur
didn't notice. He was flirting with a carful of women in a lane to his left.
"I saw four black men roll by in a white Cadillac," said Atlanta rapper E.D.I.
Mean, who was in the vehicle directly behind Shakur's. "I saw a gun come from
the back seat out through the driver's front window."
Bullets flew, shattering the windows of the BMW. Shakur tried to duck into the
rear of the car for cover, but four rounds hit him, shredding his chest. Blood was
everywhere.
"We heard shots and looked to the right of us," Knight said. "Tupac was trying to
get in the back seat, and I grabbed him and pulled him down. The gunshots kept
coming. One hit my head."
In the chaos, neither Knight nor Mean could make out who had fired. The driver
of the yellow Cadillac just behind the assailants never got a chance to fire his
AK-47.
"It all happened so quick. It took three or four seconds at most," Mean said.
Then the white Cadillac screeched around the corner. A bodyguard near the
back of the Death Row caravan fired at the fleeing sedan. In a ruse designed to
confuse Shakur's entourage, the Crip in the yellow Cadillac chased the white
Cadillac around the corner, as if in hostile pursuit.
Knight made a U-turn, his bullet-riddled BMW squealing around the concrete
median. The Death Row convoy followed him back to the Strip, where he
rammed his car onto a curb.
Las Vegas police were soon on the scene. After summoning an ambulance for
Shakur, they ordered everyone else in the Death Row convoy out of their cars at
gunpoint. The police forced Knight, who was bleeding from a head wound, to lie
face down on the pavement.
By the time the detectives figured out that Knight and his caravan were victims,
not suspects, the Crips had returned to their hotel rooms and gathered their
belongings.
Staggering their departures to avoid attracting attention, Anderson and his fellow
gang members hit the highway, each in a different car. Two younger gang
members drove the white Cadillac back across the desert.
Interstate 15 moves fast at night.
It was still dark when the Crips disappeared over the California border.
Epilogue
Surgeons at University Medical Center in Las Vegas removed Shakur's right
lung in an attempt to stop the internal bleeding. When his condition deteriorated,
they put him on a ventilator. He died six days after the shooting, with his mother
at his side.
Wallace returned to New York, where he recorded a CD called "Life After
Death," which has veiled references to the shooting in several songs. According
to the Crips, Wallace paid the gang $50,000 of the promised $1 million through an
intermediary a week after Shakur died.
In March 1997, Wallace discussed his feud with Shakur during an interview with
a San Francisco radio station. Asked whether he had a role in the rapper's death,
Wallace said he "wasn't that powerful yet."
Three days later, Wallace was in Los Angeles for the Soul Train Music Awards
and an after-party at the Petersen Automotive Museum. He was gunned down
as he sat in his Chevrolet Blazer at a traffic light on Wilshire Boulevard. No one
has ever been charged in the killing.
Two days after Shakur was shot, gang warfare erupted in Compton as the
Bloods sought revenge on the Crips. A rash of drive-by shootings left three
people dead and 12 injured, including a 10-year-old girl. Informants told police
that Anderson had been seen brandishing a Glock pistol.
Las Vegas police interviewed Anderson once. They said they could not build a
case against him as Shakur's killer because witnesses in the rapper's entourage
refused to cooperate with them.
Anderson said he had nothing to do with Shakur's death. "If they have all this
evidence against me, then why haven't they arrested me?" he said a year after
the shooting. "It's obvious that I'm innocent."
Anderson was shot dead May 29, 1998, at a Compton carwash in a dispute
police say was unrelated to Shakur's slaying.
The three other Crips who were in the white Cadillac that night in Las Vegas still
live in Compton. None of them has ever been questioned by police about the
crime.
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