People Magazine

September 17, 2007

HEADLINE: Unsolved Mystery: TUPAC SHAKUR

SUBHED: Slain in a drive-by gang shooting, the rap star remains the subject of conspiracy theories

On the evening of Sept. 7, 1996, after watching a Mike Tyson fight, Shakur, 25, was in the passenger seat of a BMW driven by Marion "Suge" Knight, the head of Death Row Records, on the crowded Las Vegas Strip. Suddenly a white Cadillac pulled up with four men inside. Shots were fired, and Shakur who took four slugs in the chest was fatally injured.

Out of those bare facts, many conspiracy theories have mushroomed. Earlier in the evening, Shakur's entourage had roughed up Orlando Anderson, a member of the Crips street gang. According to some witnesses, Anderson enlisted the Crips to carry out the hit and bragged the next day about being the triggerman. Police questioned Anderson but he was never arrested. (Anderson was later gunned down in L.A.) Some Shakur supporters accuse authorities of deliberately running a slack investigation and perhaps even having been involved in the hit. Others suggest that Knight, despite the fact that he was next to Shakur, could have been mixed up in the plot. Knight has repeatedly denied involvement. "The Crips shot Tupac," says Cathy Scott, the author of The Killing of Tupac Shakur, "but who was behind it?"

The chance that question will be answered seems remote. "The case is cold," says Scott. "Out of the four people in the Cadillac that night, two are dead. And I would imagine the other two are looking over their shoulders."

 Reprinted with permission.