LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It's been 27 years to the day since Tupac Shakur was gunned down near the Las Vegas Strip and the music world was flipped upside down.
Despite being viewed as a violent and troubled young man, Shakur eventually became a voice for the voiceless as his music and mentality struck a chord with millions. With a mix of aggressive lyrics and social commentary, Shakur grew to be a giant in the music industry — until everyone who loved him would lose him.
On September 7, 1996, Shakur and members of the rap label Death Row Records, founded by Suge Knight and Dr. Dre, made their way to Las Vegas. Shakur's close friend and Las Vegas resident Mike Tyson was fighting Bruce Seldon. However, a fight outside the ring would later overshadow the event.
"If you beat up a guy like that, you better have your head on a swivel because he's going to come back looking for you and that's exactly what happened," said Chris Carroll, a retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department sergeant who worked the case.
Carroll said Shakur and his group jumped a man named Orlando Anderson. Police believe Anderson then got a gun and shot Shakur.
It was around 11 p.m. when police say shots rang out at Flamingo and Koval. The cars carrying Shakur and his entourage sped down Flamingo, turned onto the Strip, and tried to turn left onto Harmon, but spun out in the intersection.
Carroll, the first officer to arrive at the scene, said he noticed Shakur bleeding from his mouth and knew the rapper was almost out of time. He added that he tried to get any information from Shakur before he blacked out.
"I looked at him and asked 'who shot you?' He was trying to get breath together and I thought I was actually going to get some cooperation," Carroll explained. "He looked back at me and he said, '[expletive] you.'"
Shakur went into surgery at University Medical Center, where he would die six days later. Word of his death would spread quickly throughout the music world.
"I was at home with my wife and came across the news," rapper Ice Cube said. He was friends with Shakur. "We started to call people we knew and knew him just trying to get information."
It's a sentiment shared by another one of Shakur's friends, Chuck D from Public Enemy.
"When somebody told me about Tupac, I thought this brother is going to be doing this for 40 or 50 years and every decade he's going to bring a crazy change."
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The investigation forged on and all clues seemed to lead back to the man from the fight, Orlando Anderson. However, Anderson was killed in an unrelated shooting in Los Angeles shortly after.
Retired Los Angeles Police Department detective Greg Kading said his investigation in 2006 also identified Anderson as the shooter.
"That proffer agreement essentially says that if you tell us the truth about everything, we won't hold your own statements, self-incriminating statements against you," Kading said. "It's not immunity."
However, that all changed in July. That's when Las Vegas police serviced a search warrant at Keefe D's home in Henderson. He is Anderson's uncle. Police recovered laptops, computers, photographs, and 40 caliber bullets. Those bullets were tested by forensics to see if any of them would match bullets from the scene in 1996. However, Las Vegas investigators said they did not.
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Carroll said the reason behind the search was Keefe D's recent comments on documentaries and in books.
"Things like that don't don't normally happen. I can tell you exactly why it happened. It's happened because of Keefe D running his mouth," Carroll said. "Those statements were made of his own free will. Those are still admissible in court but they still have to be proven. They have to be corroborated."
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Shakur's stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, said he's hopeful, but uncertain, that anything will actually happen in the case.
"This theory about his connection to the case has been floating around for years."
This case has left many friends and fans of Shakur wanting some sort of justice for the rap icon.
"Though he was a fierce warrior, he represented love," Mopreme said. "He loved his people."
Shakur was a global icon and friends said another big question is how he would have continued innovating and creating, if he was still alive.
"He had his own technique to bring about change and in the '90s, he brought that change up about," Chuck D said. "He was first multi-faceted rap superstar in rap music and hip-hop."
