On the 7th, Tupac
went back to L.A.. Tupac decided
he wasn’t gonna go to Las
Vegas, but to Atlanta to settle
problems with some relatives
instead. Suge got him to change
his plans though. Tupac told
Kidada that morning there was a
heavy-weight bout that night at
the MGM Grand , and weeks before
he’d promised Suge he’d go
to it with him. He also said he
didn’t want to go, but he’d
given Suge his word. He said she
could come along, not to the
fight, he didn’t want her with
that roudy bunch, but to the
party Suge was having afterward
at a club he owned downtown, and
if she were beside him it would
be ok.
When they got back his house in
Calabasas, Kidada started
packing. When she reached for
his bulletproof vest that he
always wore. Tupac said,
"No, It’ll be too
hot." Then they left. They
stopped at a gas station and
Tupac bought five magazines
about guns. He read them until
they reached the Luxor Hotel.
Tupac went to Suge’s mansion
southeast of downtown. They
partied for a while. Tupac made
a video of him calling Keisha
and another girl.
Then he went to the MGM Grand to
watch the Mike Tyson / Bruce
Seldon fight. He was mad because
Suge showed up at the last
minute. He sat in section 4, row
E, seat 2. Tupac said, "Did
you see Tyson do it to him?
Tyson did it to him! Did ya’ll
see that? We bad like that. Come
out of prison and now we running
shit." He went backstage
and hugged Mike. At 8:45 P.M.,
Travon Lane (Tray) was walking
near the hotel’s Grand Garden
with Death Row’s crew. Tray
pointed out Orlando to Tupac.
Tupac ran down the hallway until
he met up with Orlando. Tupac
asked, "You from the
South?" It escalated into a
fight and Tupac started beating
the shit out of him. Later the
rest of the Deathrow crew
arrived and helped him beat him
up. There was only one bodyguard
with the crew, and he had to
pull Tupac out of it twice. They
knocked Orlando down and began
kicking and punching him. A
security camera recorded the
incident on tape. The fight was
stopped by hotel security, and
Orlando was held for questioning
by the police, then was allowed
to leave after he declined to
press charges.
As left he gave his signed $1000
ticket’s stub into the fight
to a guy. He said, "Here
you go, boy. Enjoy this."
Tupac left at 8:55, to go back
to the hotel. Tupac went up to
Hammer’s car and told me about
the incident that had just
happen. Hammer asked him some
questions about it and he said
it was all squashed and not to
worry about it. While he was
getting in his car he was
bragging about how Tyson took
him out in 50 punches and all he
had to do was three punches and
the dude was on the ground.
Tupac’s bodyguard said he had
trouble getting him to wear his
vest, and he wouldn’t wear it
very often. He didn’t wear it
at all the whole night. Since
they were in Las Vegas they
legally couldn’t carry guns,
but guns were brought anyways.
They were in a hurry leaving the
fight though, and the bodyguard
forgot his gun in his car.
When he got to the hotel he told
Kidada, "Some nigga started
a fight with me for nothin.’
Something’s up, you stay
here." He was also upset
because he couldn’t find the
Outlaws, who were supposed to be
at the fight. He changed clothes
then went back to Suge’s
house. They got ready for party
at Club 662, where 2Pac was
going to perform. Tupac had
wanted to drive his Hummer, but
Suge said that they had things
to discuss and got Tupac to ride
with him. Two hours later, Suge
in his black, tinted-window
’96 BMW 750 sedan left the
mansion with Tupac in the
passenger seat, and the 10-car
entourage behind them. They were
listening to The Don Killuminati
The 7 Day Theory very low in the
BMW. At 10:55, Tupac rolled down
the window and a photographer
took their picture at a red
light. At 11:00, they were
stopped on Las Vegas Blvd. by
Metro bicycle cops for playing
his car stereo too loud and for
not having license plates, which
were in the trunk on his rented
car. He was not cited and was
released a few minutes later.
At a red light, on Flamingo
Road, near the intersection of
Koval Lane, in front of the
Maxim Hotel two girls distracted
Tupac and Suge on the driver’s
side, and at 11:15, a white,
four-door, late-model, Cadillac
with California plates pulled
up. Tupac had been standing up
through the sunroof. Two of the
four men inside the car got out
and fired thirteen rounds into
the passenger side of the car,
from a Glock .40 caliber
handgun. He tried to get into
the backseat, but Suge pulled
him down, and a bullet bounced
off of his right hip boneand hit
is lung. He was also hit in his
right hand and chest. Suge was
barely hit by a bullet, and
suffered a minor head wound.
Immediately after the shooting,
the Cadillac went south on Koval.
Suge made a U-turn from the left
lane of Flamingo and sped West
toward Las Vegas Blvd., away
from the nearest hospital. Suge
said that he told Tupac he’d
get him to a hospital, and Tupac
said, "I need a hospital?
You’re the one shot in the
head."
Patrol officers on an unrelated
call at the Maxim Hotel had
heard the gunshots and called
for back-up. Two other officers
followed the BMW, which took a
left on Las Vegas Blvd. South,
and police reached the car when
it was caught in traffic at the
intersection of Las Vegas Blvd.
and Harmon Ave. The officers
called an ambulance. The BMW was
covered with blood and pieces of
gold, from Tupac’s jewelry, on
the inside, and had two flat
tires. They brought Tupac out of
the car and layed him down on
the stretcher. He kept saying,
"I can’t breathe, I
can’t breathe." The
ambulance took Tupac and Suge to
the University of Nevada Medical
Center. Sgt. Kevin Manning was
assigned as leading
investigator, and Cathy Scott
was named lead reporter for the
shooting. When the police
questioned the bodyguard they
continously asked if he had shot
back, and when he said no they
asked who had shot back. The
bodyguard thought it was
Suge’s friends which were
mostly blood members. Yafeu Fula
had been in the car behind the
BMW with bodyguards. He told the
police that he could do a photo
lineup and gave them his number.
A man told Compton police that
at Club 662, he heard Tray say
that the shooter was Orlando’s
uncle Dwayne Keith Davis (Keefee
D). Tupac lost 22 oz of blood on
the way to the hospital. As he
was being carried to the
emergencyroom he said,
"I’m dying." Tupac
was admitted and listed in
critical condition. His injuries
included a gunshot wound to his
right chest with a massive
hemothorax and a gunshot wound
to the right thigh with the
bullet palpable within the
abdomen. He also had a gunshot
wound to a right finger with a
fracture.
The preoperative diagnosis
was a gunshot wound to the chest
and abdomen and post-operative
bleeding. Just before midnight
he was taken to UMC’s Trauma
Center. He was wheeled into the
recovery area and was
resuscitated according to
advanced trauma life support
protocol and a full trauma
activation was called. He was
placed on life support machines.
Two liters of blood that had
hemorrhaged into his chest
cavity were removed. His pulse
was very thready and initially
he had a minimal bloodpressure,
which rapidly declined. He was
taken immediately to the
operating room for operative
intervention and further
resuscitation. He underwent
surgery which consisted of
ligation of bleeding, and a
surgeon removed a bullet from
his pelvic area which was done
at midnight and finished at
2:35am on the 8th. Th eBMW
remained in the impound lot at
Ewing Bros. Auto Body and Towing
lot in North Las Vegas it’s
right front and rear ends
damaged. Police found no guns
inside the car, just a cigar
caseand a Motorola cell phone.
He underwent another operation
that started at 6:25 p.m. and
lasted an hour. It was
exploratory surgery, and his
punctured right lung was removed
to stop internal bleeding. He
was back in his room at 7:45.
American Express said that Suge
had rented 21 Las Vegas hotel
rooms at $50 each for last
night. Tupac was put in a
medicinally induced coma and on
life support to take pressure
off his body. Three Bloodsets
met at Lueders Park, and talked
about retaliation against the
Southside Crips for the attack
on Tupac. At 2:58 p.m., on East
Alondra a man who Las Vegas
police said may have been in the
Cadillac was shot in the back on
the 9th. At 8 P.M., 20 of
Tupac’s friends ran across the
street from the traumacenter’s
lobby to a car whose driver
police had stopped to talk to.
Sgt. Cindi West said that they
had pulled up to see what was
going on and a guy misunderstood
and wouldn’t cooperate. The
people came out not knowing what
was going on and got in the way
and were pushing some of the
officers. The police handcuffed
four men who were later
released. Two men were found
with butts of marijuana
cigarettes, but weren’t
arrested. He opened his eyes
once, while Kidada was putting
Don McLean’s
"Vincent" into a
player next to his bed. She
asked him if he heard her and to
move his feet. He did. She asked
if he knew she loved him. He
nodded. Then he went into a
coma. On the 10th,
Blackstreet’s album, Another
Level came out. "No Diggity,"
sounds like "Toss It
Up." 2Pac had the song done
with Aaron Hall before Dre did
it, and "Toss It Up"
is actually a remix of the
original song, because Dre
copied it. Aaron Hall,
ex-partner of Teddy Riley was
the original writer.
"Don’t Leave Me"
sounds like "I Ain’t Mad
At Cha." 2Pac’s concert
in Oakland was cancelled. His
next concert will be in Oakland
if city officials will agree to
it.
On the 11th, Bobby Finch, a
Southside Crip who Compton cops
said may have also been in the
Cadillac, was gunned down on
South Mayo at 9:05 am. Suge and
three lawyers spoke with METRO
police for an hour and left them
with nothing in the way of leads
towards suspects or motives. In
Compton, Orlando’s cousin
Jerry Bonds drove the white
Cadillac into an autoshop on
White and Alondra with another
guy at 3 P.M.. On the 12th Tupac
was supposed to have gone to
court for sentencing on weapons
charges for carrying a concealed
gun when he attacked Allen
Hughes. On Friday the 13th,
doctors tried to resuscitate
Tupac several times, then Afeni
said not to try again. When
Tupac took his last breath
Gloria Jean praised his body and
could bear witness to who it
was. He died at 4:03 (4 + 0 + 3
= 7) p.m. at the Intensive Care
Unit. He was pronounced dead by
Dr. Lovett o frespiratory
failure and cardiopulmonary
arrest. The bodyguard had been
at Suge’s house, and Suge was
mad at him and blaming him for
not having his gun with him. He
was coming towards him in a
threatening way when the phone
rang, and he found out Tupac
died. Suge told the bodyguard
that it didn’t matter now
because he’s gone, and his
voice was cracking up like he
wasg oing to cry. Afeni made a
positive identification of
Tupac’s body at 5. A mortuary
van took his body to the Clark
County Coroner’s office at
5:10. They did an autopsy. It
determined that Tupac didn’t
have any illegal drugs in
hisbody, but was heavily
sedated. The autopsy report is
on file at the office, but is
not deemed by Nevada state law
to be public.
There were ballistics tests, but
the results have not been made
public. They took six pictures
of him which were put on file at
the office. Two general
assignment detectives took
Polaroid pictures of Tupac at
the morgue for a police training
book, bu tlater were removed
from the book and destroyed.
They sent his blood to Long
Beach Genetics, who did the DNA
testing to find the probability
of Afeni and Billy 99.97%
parentage. Two more Bloods were
shot and killed by an assailant
who fled on foot. He was
cremated.
On the 14th, Afeni spread some
of his ashes on a hill in L.A.
and some on her garden, which
has now flourished. Tupac’s
family held a private funeral
for him in Las Vegas. On the
15th, he was mourned during a
memorial service at The House of
the Lord Pentecostal Church in
Brooklyn, where he was still
listed as a member of the
congregation. Police had thought
that the man at the MGM Grand
could have been a suspect, but
was ruled out because security
was still holding him when Tupac
had left the building. Because
Tupac didn’t have a will,
Afeni had to file court papers
as the only living heir and that
she was the administer of his
estate. Death Row emptied the
apartment and took the furniture
which Tupac was charged over
$100,000 for. Cathy got an
autopsy photo of Tupac dissected
on a table at the morgue. It is
not an official coroner or
police photo, and was offered
$100,000 for it from The
National Enquirer.
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