Tupac Shakur's shooting location

This is the site where Tupac Shakur was fatally shot.

It is located on the southwestern corner of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas.

On the night of September 7, 1996, a gunman opened fire on the rapper while he was stopped at this intersection. Shakur died from his injuries six days later.

MGM Grand assault

On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur, Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, and their entourage watched Mike Tyson defeat Bruce Seldon in a boxing match at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

As fans poured into the lobby after the fight, the group spotted a man named Orlando Anderson standing near the elevators.

Anderson was a South Side Crip gang member from Los Angeles.

Two months earlier, he was part of a group that allegedly assaulted Trevon "Tre" Lane at a Foot Locker store in Lakewood, California.

Lane was a Death Row Records associate and an affiliate of the Mob Piru Bloods.

Lane reportedly pointed Anderson out to Shakur.

The rapper then approached Anderson, asked if he was "from the South," and punched him. Members of the entourage quickly joined in, kicking Anderson while he lay on the ground.

Shakur and his associates left the MGM Grand immediately after the attack.

When security guards arrived and spoke to Anderson, he refused to name his attackers or press charges.

Drive to Club 662

Following the fight, Shakur and the Death Row entourage returned to their rooms at the Luxor Hotel.

Upon hearing about the incident, Shakur's girlfriend, Kidada Jones, urged him to wear a bulletproof vest, but he refused because it was 85°F (30°C).

At approximately 11 p.m., the group left the hotel in a 10-vehicle convoy bound for Club 662, where a post-fight party was scheduled.

After pulling out of the parking lot, they headed north on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Shakur and Knight were at the front of the convoy, traveling in a black 1996 BMW 750iL.

Moments later, a police bicycle unit stopped the BMW for playing music too loud and not displaying license plates. Following a brief discussion, Knight retrieved the plates from the trunk, and the group continued northbound.

Further up the boulevard, the convoy stopped at a red light near the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and East Harmon Avenue.

While they were waiting, UCLA film student Leonard Jefferson noticed Shakur and photographed him in the passenger seat.

When the lights turned green, the entourage continued north before turning right onto East Flamingo Road.

Shooting

The group drove east until they stopped at another set of traffic lights at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.

Seconds later, a group of men in a white Cadillac pulled up on the passenger side of the BMW and opened fire with a Glock .40 pistol.

Shakur attempted to jump into the back seat, inadvertently exposing his torso.

He was hit four times, including twice in the chest. Knight was grazed in the head by a bullet.

Following the shooting, Knight made a U-turn and attempted to drive to a nearby hospital.

The police, who quickly responded to reports of a shooting, stopped the BMW at the intersection of Harmon Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Unsure of who had been injured or who had fired the shots, police ordered members of the entourage to the ground.

After securing the scene and finding Shakur, they called for medical assistance.

One of the officers present was an LVMPD sergeant named Chris Carroll.

According to Carroll, he repeatedly asked Shakur who had shot him. However, the rapper could not focus or speak, as he was struggling to breathe.

Moments later, Shakur reportedly took a deep breath, looked at Carroll, and calmly replied, "F*ck you."

He then lost consciousness.

Although these are commonly reported to be Shakur's final words, nobody else at the scene could recall the rapper saying, "F*ck you."

Death

Shakur was rushed to the University Medical Center at 1800 West Charleston Boulevard.

He arrived unconscious with a weak pulse. By then, two liters of blood had accumulated in his chest.

Doctors resuscitated him and activated a full trauma protocol.

Shakur drifted in and out of consciousness after he was placed on life support.

The greatest damage came from a bullet that had lodged in his chest under his right arm. Exploratory surgery found that his right lung was beyond repair and needed to be removed. Surgeons also struggled to locate the source of his internal bleeding.

The rapper was placed in a medically induced coma after he repeatedly tried to remove tubes and get out of his hospital bed.

While he remained in critical condition, TV crews and fans waited for news outside the hospital.

Members of his entourage also stood guard in case his attackers returned.

A hospital spokesperson told the media that his injuries were "very severe" and "very traumatic."

On September 9, Shakur underwent an operation to remove his lung. Despite the procedure, the internal bleeding continued, and his organs began to fail.

Four days later, on September 13, he went into cardiac arrest due to respiratory failure.

Doctors worked to resuscitate him, but his condition had declined so severely that it became evident he would not survive. Consequently, his mother, Afeni Shakur, decided to cease medical treatment.

Shakur was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m.

He was 25 years old.

The rapper's death came as a shock to many in the hip-hop world. In November 1994, he had survived being shot five times at the Quad Studios in New York. Given his history, most people expected him to make a full recovery.

Duane "Keefe D" Davis

Shakur's killing remained unsolved for more than two decades.

Investigators suspected that Anderson may have been involved in the shooting, given that Shakur had assaulted him at the casino earlier that evening. However, any possibility of pursuing charges against him ended in May 1998, when he was killed in a gang-related shootout at a car wash in Compton, Los Angeles.

On July 18, 2023, the police executed a search warrant at a house belonging to the wife of Duane "Keefe D" Davis.

Davis is Anderson's uncle and a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips. Since 2018, he has publicly given various accounts admitting his involvement in the shooting.

In September 2023, a Clark County grand jury indicted Davis for Shakur's murder.

Prosecutors allege that Davis played a key role in the crime. After hearing about the fight at the casino, he allegedly procured a pistol, rounded up several gang members, and devised a plan to retaliate.

On the night of the shooting, Davis, Anderson, and two gang members named Terrence Brown and DeAndre "Big Dre" Smith got into a white Cadillac and went looking for Knight and Shakur.

Brown was driving the Cadillac. Davis sat beside him in the passenger seat, while Anderson and Smith were in the back.

Crip members in two other vehicles served as backup.

The group initially parked outside Club 662, as they knew that Shakur often performed at the venue.

However, when an hour and a half passed and nobody showed up, they decided to visit a nearby Liquor Barn store.

Davis said that they came across the Death Row convoy by chance. After stopping at the liquor store, they began driving back to their hotel on East Harmon Avenue.

As they reached East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, they heard a group of people shouting, "Tupac, Tupac!"

Across the intersection, they saw Shakur, leaning out of the BMW and talking to three women in a convertible.

When the women moved forward, it created a space on the right side of the rapper's vehicle.

After noticing the opening, Brown made a quick U-turn, drove into the right lane, and pulled up alongside Shakur.

Although Davis has claimed that Anderson pulled the trigger, a Crip affiliate named Devonta "Dirt Rock" Lee testified before a grand jury that it was "Big Dre" Smith who fired the weapon.

Lee stated that Davis handed the pistol to Anderson, who couldn't open fire because Smith was in the way.

Smith urged Anderson to give him the gun, as he had a clear shot. He then took the weapon and opened fire on the BMW.

Lane, who had earlier pointed out Anderson to Shakur at the MGM Grand, allegedly got out of his vehicle and fired several shots at the Cadillac, but Brown quickly swerved through traffic and sped away.

Following the shooting, the men drove the Cadillac back to Los Angeles, where they cleaned and repainted it before returning it to the rental company.

A grand jury witness said that "Big Dre" Smith refrained from taking credit for the killing because he didn't want "the heat." He was also mindful of Anderson's reputation, as gang code dictated that Anderson should have been the person who fired the gun.

Shakur's childhood friend and Outlawz member, Malcolm Greenidge (Idi Amin), also testified before the grand jury.

At the time of the shooting, Greenidge was seated in a Lexus directly behind the BMW. He stated that he observed an arm extend from the rear passenger window of the Cadillac.

Greenidge described the arm as African-American and "muscular" or "larger size," noting it was "not a thin arm."

Davis' trial is currently scheduled to begin in August 2026.