By Teresa Moss
Las Vegas Sun
LAS VEGAS — For 27 years, the murder of Tupac Shakur has been unsolved, becoming one of the most talked about cold cases in the music industry. But on Tuesday, Metro Police stirred a new hope for a resolution with the announcement of a search warrant.
The warrant was served on a Henderson property Monday, a release sent Tuesday afternoon said. The police department said no other information would be released.
Shakur, 25, was the victim of a drive-by-shooting near the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane on Sept. 7, 1996. He was struck three times and died six days later at University Medical Center.
KTNV 13 reported late Tuesday that an unnamed official said that police searched a home for computers, laptops and articles about Shakur and his death. The source said the evidence is being presented to a Las Vegas grand Jury and could result in charges being brought against someone being in the vehicle with the gunman.
8NewsNow reported earlier Tuesday that an unknown source told their outlet that the search warrant involved Duane Davis, known as Keefe D. Davis is the uncle of Orlando Anderson.
Anderson was interviewed by police shortly after the shooting after being identified as someone Tupac had a conflict with hours earlier in the night, said Cathy Scott, author of “The Killing of Tupac Shakur” and former Las Vegas Sun reporter who reported on the case at the time. Her recent TV appearances include Dateline NBC, the Today Show and Vanity Fair’s crime series.
Scott said Tuesday that police found a Glock in Anderson’s home not long after the killing. She said forensics were run on the gun and the data was inconclusive.
The LA Weekly reported in 2011 that Davis admitted to an LAPD detective during a taped interview that he was in the car when Anderson killed Tupac.
On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Las Vegas was buzzing with energy around the anticipated Mike-Tyson-Bruce Sheldon heavyweight championships.
Shakur, as were many other famous names, was in town for the fight.
“Celebrities and politicians and who’s who of everything was at that fight,” Greg McCurdy, former spokesman for Metro Police said during a panel last week.
He said the city was busy with a multitude of events scheduled around the fight. One of those events included Tupac performing at Club 662.
McCurdy was working the event ringside.
“Earlier in the evening before the fight even started, we had people trying to enter the metal detectors with guns,” McCurdy said.
Steven Seagal was one person specifically unhappy about not being able to carry a gun into the Mgm Grand Garden Arena, McCurdy said.
The resort was billed three years earlier as the largest in the world. It was one of the first times many people had been through a metal detector for an event, McCurdy said.
Tupac attended the fight, which lasted one minute and forty-nine seconds, with Marion “Suge” Knight, head of Death Row Records and an entourage. Video footage surfaced in recent years of Tupac hugging Tyson soon after the fight, which Tyson won with a left hook that knocked Sheldon out.
As Tupac, Knight and the entourage left the fight, they ran into Orlando Anderson, a known gang associate from South Central LA, Scott said.
Anderson drove with some friends to Las Vegas in a white Cadillac to watch Tyson fight, Scott said Tuesday.
“Orlando didn’t have a ticket,” Anderson said. “So, he was waiting outside the venue, leaning against the elevator banks when Tupac and Suge Knight and his entourage came in.”
Someone in Tupac’s group pointed out Anderson and told the group that Anderson had stolen a necklace from him two months earlier.
Widely publicized video shows Tupac and the group attacking Anderson in the resort.
Metro Police arrived, but Anderson refused to press charges, Scott said.
“Metro didn’t even take his name,” Scott said. “It was the police out of Compton that later gave Las Vegas his name. They couldn’t ID him immediately because they didn’t do any type of report”
Scott said someone at the hotel later leaked details of the fight to the media.
Everyone knew Tupac was performing at Club 622 later, Scott said.
“It was on fliers posted everywhere and on the radio,” Scott said.
Shakur was riding in Knight’s rented BMW 750 when a light-colored late-model Cadillac pulled up and a gunman in the back seat opened fire on the passenger side, Scott said.
“If you break down the evidence and look at the case and means and opportunity,” Scott said. “Orlando had all three. They beat him up, and he turns around and he retaliates. That is what happened.
This is the first time in many years that Metro has acknowledged it is working on the case, she said.
Scott questioned why the department was saying more at this time.
“Why are they publicizing they did this and why not publicize if they found anything?” Scott said, “They need to let the public know what it was for and what they are looking for.”
Otherwise, Scott said, it could all be viewed as a stunt for attention.
On Nov. 13, two months after Shakur’s death, 19-year-old Yafeu Fula, a backup singer in Shakur’s group Outlaw Immortalz, was shot gangland-style in the hallway of a housing project in Orange, N.J. The 19-year-old was part of Shakur’s entourage in Las Vegas and was a passenger in a car directly behind Shakur’s when Shakur was shot.
Police say Fula’s murder was unrelated to the Shakur case, even though Fula was the only witness who told Metro investigators that night that he could possibly identify Shakur’s assailant. Fula was killed before police could question him at length.
Scott said Tuesday that a majority of the witnesses present the night that Shakur was murdered are dead.
“That’s why this is fascinating,” Scott said about Tuesday’s news. “Most of the players are gone and dead, and the police department comes out with something new.”
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