Las Vegas police serve search warrant in connection with Tupac Shakur murder

‘California Love’ rapper was fatally shot in 1996. A killer was never charged

Las Vegas police confirmed Tuesday (18 July) that it has issued a search warrant in connection with the unsolved murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Shakur (also known by his stage name 2Pac) was fatally shot in September 1996 in a drive-by shooting in the Nevada city. He was 25.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told The Associated Press that a search warrant was executed for a home in the nearby city of Henderson. Police made entry into the home on 17 July; however, no further details on the search have been made available at this time.

No arrests have ever been made in the case.

Shakur had attended a boxing match with the now-incarcerated record executive Suge Knight in Vegas on the night of 7 September 1996 when a car pulled up alongside theirs on Las Vegas Boulevard and opened fire.

The rapper was struck four times in the shooting and died six days later from internal bleeding.

In October 2018, former Death Row Records boss Knight was sentenced to 28 years in prison for running over and killing music executive Terry Carter.

Ahead of the trial, Knight claimed that he was the real target of the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed rapper Tupac Shakur, and that his ex-wife and former Death Row Records security chief were behind it.

In a signed affidavit, Knight’s attorney Thaddeus Culpepper reportedly wrote that the record producer has known “for many years that Reggie Wright Jr and his ex-wife Sharitha were behind the murder of Tupac and attempted murder of Knight”.

Wright Jr has denied the accusations.

Since Shakur’s death, there have been numerous conspiracy theories around his killing, including that the rapper is still alive in Cuba after faking his own death.

In June, Shakur was posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tupac Shakur (A Crollalanza/Shutterstock)

“From the first time he stepped foot on this stage of the Apollo Theater at 13 years old, before anyone recognized his name, he knew he had the dream to have a star here on the walk of fame,” the late rapper’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, said while accepting the star on his behalf.

Last year, fellow rapper Snoop Dogg opened up about his final moments with Shakur.

On the Impaulsive podcast, the “Gin and Juice” lyricist recalled arriving at Shakur’s hospital bedside: “When I walked in, I could just feel like he wasn’t even there and I fainted.”

This story is being updated