When Tupac Shakur was killled in September of 1996, many people's first thought as to who the killers were all went in one direction - Bad Boy Entertainment. This would turn out not to be the case however. What happened that night was a result of events that were in no way related to Puff Daddy, Bad Boy, or any east coast-west coast beef Tupac had with anyone.
Technically the trouble started one or two months earlier, in July or August of 1996, when an affiliate of Death Row Records, Travon Lane, was in a Foot Locker store in the Lakewood Mall in Compton. While he was leaving the store, he was confronted by several members of the Southside Crips. A scuffle followed in which Travon Lane was left slightly beaten and missing his Death Row necklace, which a Crip had torn from around his neck during the fight. Authentic Death Row necklaces incidently, fetch a major price on the streets, as only Death Row employees can get or wear authientic ones.
Anyway, now we go back to the night of the shooting, September 7, 1996. Tupac, Suge, several members of the Outlaw Immortalz and a large entourage of Death Row related personnel were in Las Vegas. It was the night of the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight, which Tupac and company attended. After the fight, the Death Row entourage were hanging out in the lobby of MGM-Grand, where the fight was held. Travon Lane spotted the Crip he claimed had taken his Death Row necklace two months earlier, and pointed him out to Tupac. Tupac went over to the man, whose name is Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, and confronted him for the theft of the necklace and his being a Crip. (Death Row apparently, I have heard, or at least Suge, are Bloods affiliated). A fight broke out in which Tupac knocked Anderson to the ground and proceeded to beat the living shit out of him. This fight was caught on the security cameras of MGM-Grand, where Tupac could been seen kicking at Anderson on the ground.
Later that night, the Death Row line up of cars was on its way to Club 662, the club owned by Suge. Tupac was in a black BMW near the front of the procession, driven by Suge Knight. While the cars were stationary, a white Cadillac pulled up beside the BMW on the passengers' side; Tupac's side. The Cadillac contained Orlando Anderson and two or three other Crips. One of the passengers opened fire on Tupac with a Glock, with all the bullets hitting 2Pac and one grazing the side of Suge's head to cause a minor flesh wound. The man got himself back into the Cadillac and it sped off.
Suge Knight immediately took off. (A significant part of "Tupac alive" theories and "Suge killed him" theories is the fact that Suge made a U-turn and left the scene. Apparently all hospitals in Las Vegas are in the opposite direction). Tupac was rushed into surgery where the bullets were removed, then underwent surgery the following day to have one of his lungs removed. Another operation was performed shortly after this one.
Sadly, Tupac's body lost the fight for life almost a week after the shooting, on September 13, 1996, when he was pronounced dead at 4:03am in the morning. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was by his side as he passed away.
R.I.P - Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971 - 1996)