Tupac Shakur Murder: Police Take New Action in One of Hip-Hop’s Most Notorious Cold Cases

After nearly three decades, investigators in Nevada are taking new action in the unsolved killing of a hip-hop star, Tupac Shakur, serving a search warrant in connection with his death.The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department searched a home at Henderson, Nevada, about 20 miles from the Las Vegas Strip, where Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996. Further details have not yet been released.“LVMPD can confirm a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevada on July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation,” Las Vegas police said in a statement. “We will have no further comment at this time.”The home that police raided appears to be owned by the wife of a supposed uncle of a suspect in the killing, Orlando Anderson, according to reporting by TMZ. In 1996, Shakur, then 25, was shot while heading for a nightclub after watching a championship fight between boxers Mike Tyson and Bruce Sheldon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Shakur was in a black BMW driven by the founder of Death Row Records, Marion Knight, when a Cadillac carrying four men pulled up next to the BMW while it was stopped at a red light. One man in the Cadillac opened fire, shooting Shakur four times in the chest and injuring Knight. Shakur was then transported to the hospital, where he died six days later. Video evidence has shown that both Anderson and Davis were at the stadium that night and were jumped by Shakur and company. Davis disclosed the information to the Los Angeles Police Department in 2009, claiming that Anderson shot Shakur.In 2018, Davis confessed to being in the Cadillac on an episode of “Unsolved: the Tupac and Biggie Murders,” claiming that Anderson had fired the shots that killed Shakur. Police haven’t yet confirmed or denied this confession. The killing became one of the most infamous in hip-hop and music generally, with Shakur being one of the most influential artists of his generation despite his career spanning only five years.During his career, Shakur was nominated for six Grammys. He had five no. 1 albums, “Me Against the World,” “All Eyez on Me,” and his three posthumous releases, “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory,” “Until the End of Time,” and “Loyal to the Game.”Shakur was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023.Shakur’s killing came during a feud involving a New York rapper, Notorious B.I.G., or Christopher Wallace, with Shakur representing West Coast hip-hop and Wallace representing the East Coast.Although it’s not proven that the shooting was part of the rivalry, Shakur accused both Wallace and his associate, Sean “Diddy” Combs, of having prior knowledge of a previous shooting in 1994 at a Manhattan hotel where Shakur was seriously wounded.The two frequently attacked each other verbally, both in the press and in their music, though the precise subjects of some of these songs, like Shakur’s “Hit ‘Em Up” and Wallace’s “Who Shot Ya?,” were disputed, even at the time of their release.Wallace was killed about six months after Shakur, in March 1997, at Los Angeles. He was 24 at the time. Since the killing, FBI agent Phil Carson has claimed that the killing was a hit placed by Knight as revenge for Shakur’s death. Knight has been convicted of multiple crimes and served prison time since 1995 but has never been convicted for crimes associated with Wallace’s death.Seemingly contradicting Mr. Carson, members of Shakur’s backing crew, The Outlawz, have claimed that Shakur and Wallace had made peace with one another days before Shakur was killed.The circumstances around Shakur’s death, though, have remained a mystery for more than 25 years in no small part due to the silence of witnesses to the shooting.

Tupac Shakur Murder: Police Take New Action in One of Hip-Hop’s Most Notorious Cold Cases

Tupac Shakur Murder: Police Take New Action in One of Hip-Hop’s Most Notorious Cold Cases

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