LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Conflicts between Southern California gangs led to an infamous night in Las Vegas and a shooting at Flamingo and Koval.
Law enforcement and experts we spoke to say gang lifestyle delayed justice in the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur.
Rap label Death Row Records had known ties to gang The Mob Piru in Compton, and witnesses for Nevada grand Jury proceedings say the South Side Compton Crips acted as security for rival rap label Bad Boy Records.
Those affiliations would lead to violence in Los Angeles and then Las Vegas.
Police say after member of Death Row Records beat up South Side Compton Crips member Orlando Anderson at the MGM Grand on September 7, 1996, the crips went on to retaliate.
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"Within a short amount of time what we knew is that we were working a gang investigation," said Lieutenant Jason Johansson with LVMPD's homicide unit.
Following the drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip, victims and suspects refused to tell police what happened and who shot and killed rap legend Tupac Shakur.
Retired Los Angeles Police Detective Greg Kading says gang culture played a role in how long this case has remained open.
"That's the whole problem here is that both of these record labels were allowing gang members to be part of their inner circle," Kading said.
We spoke with Pastor Troy Martinez who was a former gang member himself and has been helping with gang intervention for 40 years.
He says gang culture is all about not betraying those in the same lifestyle.
"Understanding the gang culture, it becomes your family...you are loyal because you choose to be—you want to be loyal, that those are your friends, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. Everyone you know is involved in that gang. Many times it's even your family," the pastor said.
Martinez says we can address gang culture and the lifestyle by talking about the dangers of it to children and teens.
"Give them the information. Early intervention is the best way to stop gang culture."
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He says it is a very powerful temptation when you're offered money, drugs, sex, and friendship but he says the Tupac murder investigation highlights three things about the gang lifestyle.
"One of the tools that gangs use is they idolize, they romanticize the gang culture. But we can see in this case that no matter how you romanticize it, it is still death, prison and destruction."
Duane "Keefe D" Davis is set to be in court on October 19.
