Report: Rapper Tupac slain by gang member
Published: Sept. 6, 2002 at 2:04 PM
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- The high-profile homicide of gangsta rap star Tupac Shakur on the Las Vegas Strip in 1996 was apparently committed in retaliation for a beating administered to a Los Angeles gang member and involved the participation of rival rapper Notorious B.I.G., who was himself gunned down six months later, the Los Angeles Times said Friday.
In a two-part series that began Friday, the Times concluded that Orlando Anderson, a 21-year-old Compton gang member who had been beaten up in a hotel lobby by Shakur and his entourage, pulled the trigger and killed Shakur with a handgun supplied by Notorious B.I.G.
Anderson is also dead, having been shot in an unrelated dispute on his Compton home turf in 1998.
There was no immediate comment on the report from Las Vegas police.
Although the Sept. 7, 1996, slaying has never been solved, the newspaper said court documents and interviews with law enforcement and street gang members produced a picture in which rivalries between gangs and rappers with a penchant for uninhibited violence added up to doom the talented Shakur.
The 25-year-old rapper was shot four times as he sat at a stoplight on the crowded Strip in car driven by Death Row Records founder Marion "Shug" Knight. The Times described it as an opportunistic shooting by a crew of Southside Crips who had originally planned a more elaborate ambush outside a Vegas nightclub where Shakur was scheduled to make a late-night appearance.
"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."
"It all happened so quick," Mean told the Times. "It took three or four seconds, at most."
Knight escaped with a minor head wound, but Las Vegas police were never able to make much progress in their investigation due to the refusal of Shakur's entourage to cooperate with authorities.
But the Times said Knight and the other members of Shakur's camp had no inkling that they were being stalked by Anderson and his fellow Southside Crips, who had armed themselves and were bent on revenge for the altercation that had left Anderson badly bruised and insulted a few hours earlier.
Notorious B.I.G., whose true name was Christopher Wallace, did not hatch the scheme, but it reportedly had his blessing and was carried out with promises of a financial reward and a 40-mm Glock handgun that Wallace provided, apparently so he would have the satisfaction of knowing it was his gun that fired the fatal bullet into his hated rival.
Wallace was in Las Vegas at the time for a heavyweight fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. Such events regularly drew large numbers of gang members, who rented out blocks of hotel rooms with profits from the crack cocaine trade.
After the brawl with Shakur and his Blood bodyguards at the MGM Grand following the Tyson fight, Anderson and his Crip comrades were bent on revenge, the Times said. They retreated to a room at the Treasure Island hotel and put out a call for weapons from a safe house in Las Vegas used by the gang to store guns, money and drugs.
They also decided to get hold of their old friend Wallace, who was to the Crips what Shakur was to the Bloods, a high-profile associate who gave them access to the glamour of the music business.
There had been bad blood between the New York-based Wallace and Los Angeles-based Shakur in the 1990s, and Wallace had allegedly offered a bounty on Shakur. The Crips that night decided to take him up on the offer since they planned to kill Shakur regardless and figured they might as well make some money for their efforts, the Times said.
At a meeting in Wallace's suite at the MGM, the rapper agreed to pay $1 million for the hit, but only if the Crips used his personal Glock.
As the killers made their way to the club where they planned to shoot Shakur, they saw him in the car with Knight without any security and decided to opportunistically kill him at that time. The gunmen later made their way back to Los Angeles in separate vehicles, leaving at staggered times in order to avoid attracting attention, the Times said.
If Wallace took any pleasure in Shakur's death, it was short-lived because he himself was shot and killed by an unknown assailant as he sat in his own vehicle on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in March 1997 following a party after the Soul Train Music Awards.
In a two-part series that began Friday, the Times concluded that Orlando Anderson, a 21-year-old Compton gang member who had been beaten up in a hotel lobby by Shakur and his entourage, pulled the trigger and killed Shakur with a handgun supplied by Notorious B.I.G.
Anderson is also dead, having been shot in an unrelated dispute on his Compton home turf in 1998.
There was no immediate comment on the report from Las Vegas police.
Although the Sept. 7, 1996, slaying has never been solved, the newspaper said court documents and interviews with law enforcement and street gang members produced a picture in which rivalries between gangs and rappers with a penchant for uninhibited violence added up to doom the talented Shakur.
The 25-year-old rapper was shot four times as he sat at a stoplight on the crowded Strip in car driven by Death Row Records founder Marion "Shug" Knight. The Times described it as an opportunistic shooting by a crew of Southside Crips who had originally planned a more elaborate ambush outside a Vegas nightclub where Shakur was scheduled to make a late-night appearance.
"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."
"It all happened so quick," Mean told the Times. "It took three or four seconds, at most."
Knight escaped with a minor head wound, but Las Vegas police were never able to make much progress in their investigation due to the refusal of Shakur's entourage to cooperate with authorities.
But the Times said Knight and the other members of Shakur's camp had no inkling that they were being stalked by Anderson and his fellow Southside Crips, who had armed themselves and were bent on revenge for the altercation that had left Anderson badly bruised and insulted a few hours earlier.
Notorious B.I.G., whose true name was Christopher Wallace, did not hatch the scheme, but it reportedly had his blessing and was carried out with promises of a financial reward and a 40-mm Glock handgun that Wallace provided, apparently so he would have the satisfaction of knowing it was his gun that fired the fatal bullet into his hated rival.
Wallace was in Las Vegas at the time for a heavyweight fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. Such events regularly drew large numbers of gang members, who rented out blocks of hotel rooms with profits from the crack cocaine trade.
After the brawl with Shakur and his Blood bodyguards at the MGM Grand following the Tyson fight, Anderson and his Crip comrades were bent on revenge, the Times said. They retreated to a room at the Treasure Island hotel and put out a call for weapons from a safe house in Las Vegas used by the gang to store guns, money and drugs.
They also decided to get hold of their old friend Wallace, who was to the Crips what Shakur was to the Bloods, a high-profile associate who gave them access to the glamour of the music business.
There had been bad blood between the New York-based Wallace and Los Angeles-based Shakur in the 1990s, and Wallace had allegedly offered a bounty on Shakur. The Crips that night decided to take him up on the offer since they planned to kill Shakur regardless and figured they might as well make some money for their efforts, the Times said.
At a meeting in Wallace's suite at the MGM, the rapper agreed to pay $1 million for the hit, but only if the Crips used his personal Glock.
As the killers made their way to the club where they planned to shoot Shakur, they saw him in the car with Knight without any security and decided to opportunistically kill him at that time. The gunmen later made their way back to Los Angeles in separate vehicles, leaving at staggered times in order to avoid attracting attention, the Times said.
If Wallace took any pleasure in Shakur's death, it was short-lived because he himself was shot and killed by an unknown assailant as he sat in his own vehicle on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles in March 1997 following a party after the Soul Train Music Awards.
© 2002 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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