American rapper Tupac Shakur was shot in a drive-by attack in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, in a killing that shocked the music industry and became one of the most enduring unsolved cases in hip-hop history.
Shakur was travelling in a BMW with Death Row Records boss Suge Knight after attending a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand.
Earlier that evening, Shakur and members of Knight’s entourage had been involved in a confrontation with Orlando Anderson, a member of the South Side Compton Crips gang.
Later that night, while Shakur and Knight were stopped at a red light at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a white Cadillac pulled alongside their vehicle. A gunman opened fire, striking Shakur four times -twice in the chest, once in the arm and once in the thigh. Knight was also injured.
Despite his injuries, Knight drove Shakur to hospital, where the rapper was placed on life support and later put into a medically induced coma. Shakur died on September 13, 1996, at the age of 25, after suffering respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
The killing occurred during the height of the bitter East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry, which had intensified through public disputes and diss tracks involving Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G. and their associates.
For years, investigators struggled to make an arrest. Orlando Anderson was repeatedly linked to the killing but denied involvement and was never charged.
He was killed in an unrelated gang shooting in 1998.
A major breakthrough came in 2023 when Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
Davis, a former South Side Compton Crips figure, had previously said he was in the Cadillac involved in the shooting.
Davis was found guilty of Shakur’s murder on August 31, 2026, nearly 30 years after the rapper’s death.
Shakur remains one of the most influential figures in hip-hop, known for songs addressing racism, poverty, police brutality, violence and social inequality.
His death at 25 cemented his status as a cultural icon, while questions surrounding his murder continued to fuel speculation for decades.