THE DAY TUPAC DIED

On September 7, 1996, American hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shakur was hit from a .40-caliber Glock^[1] four times, twice in the chest, once in the arm, and once in the thigh.^[2] The shooting occurred at about 11:15 PM when the car with Shakur stopped at a red light at East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.^[3] Shakur died from injuries six days later on September 13, 1996 in the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. The murder remains officially unsolved.

At around 11:00–11:15 pm (PDT), they were halted on Las Vegas Boulevard by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department bicycle police for playing the car stereo too loudly and not having license plates. The plates were found in the trunk of Knight's car; the party was released a few minutes later without being cited.^[8][9] At about 11:10 pm (PDT), while they were stopped at a red light at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their left side. Shakur, who was standing up through the sunroof, exchanged words with the two women, and invited them to go to Club 662.^[9] At approximately 11:15 pm (PDT), a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac with an unknown number of occupants pulled up to the sedan's right side, rolled down a window, and rapidly fired gunshots at Shakur. He was hit four times, in the chest, in the arm, and in the thigh. One of the rounds went into Shakur's right lung and left testicle.^[10] Knight was hit in the head by fragmentation.^[11] Bodyguard Frank Alexander stated that when he was about to ride along with Shakur in Knight's car, Shakur asked him to drive the car of Shakur's fiancée Kidada Jones instead, in case they needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel. The bodyguard reported in his documentary, Before I Wake, that shortly after the assault, one of the convoy's cars followed the assailant but he never heard from the occupants.^[12] Yaki Kadafi was riding in the car behind Shakur with bodyguards at the time of the shooting and along with members of the Death Row Records entourage, refused to cooperate with officers.^[13]

Despite the vehicle having a flat tire and Knight's condition, he was able to drive Shakur and himself a mile from the site, to Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. They were pulled over by the Bike Patrol, who alerted paramedics through radio.^[14] After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Knight and a wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.^[15] They were pulled over just steps away from the MGM Grand.^[14] According to an interview with the music video director Gobi, while at the hospital, he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the record label and threatened Shakur.^[15] Gobi told the Las Vegas police, but said they claimed to be understaffed.^[15] No attackers came to the hospital.^[15] Shakur said he was dying while being carried into the emergency room.^[7] At the hospital, Shakur was heavily sedated, was placed on life support machines, and was ultimately put under a barbiturate-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of the bed. He was visited by Jones and regained consciousness when she played Don McLean's "Vincent" on the CD player next to his bed. According to Jones, he moaned and his eyes were filled with "mucus and swollen." Jones told Shakur that she loved him.^[7] Knight was released from the hospital the day following the shooting on September 8, but did not speak until September 11. He told officers he had "heard something, but saw nothing" the night of the shooting. A spokesman for the officers said Knight's statement did nothing to help the investigation.^[14] Officers at the time of Shakur's hospitalization reported having no leads. Sergeant Kevin Manning said during the week that officers did not receive "a whole lot of cooperation" from Shakur's entourage.^[16] Gobi Rahimi and members of Shakur's group Outlawz guarded Shakur while he stayed in the hospital due to their fear that whoever shot Shakur "was gonna come finish him off." Rahimi mentioned the possibility that Outlawz brought weapons with them.^[17] While in the critical care unit, on the afternoon of Friday, September 13, 1996, Shakur died of internal bleeding; doctors attempted to revive him but could not stop the hemorrhaging. His mother Afeni made the decision to cease medical treatment.^[10] He was pronounced dead at 4:03 pm (PDT). The official cause of death was respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds.^[18] While most of the reaction to his death was peaceful outside the hospital, a friend of Shakur screamed at the staff, demanding to know why they had let him die.^[19]

In 2014, a police officer who claimed he witnessed Shakur's last moments said Shakur refused to state who shot him. When the officer asked Tupac if he saw the person or people who shot him, Shakur responded by saying, "Fuck you" to the officer as his last words.^[20] Paramedics and other officers present at the scene did not report hearing Tupac say those words, nor did bodyguard Frank Alexander or Suge Knight, who were also present.^[21]