Tupac’s murder case has remained a cold case for two decades after the rapper was gunned down on the Las Vegas strip. Though various theories have been both compelling and absurd over the years, no one has been charged or identified in the murder.
Suge Knight, who was with Tupac at the time of his shooting, has claimed that his ex-wife Sharitha Golden and a former Death Row security chief killed Tupac Shakur, and that he was in fact the real target of the 1996 murder.
But, according to new information discovered by the A&E documentary Who Killed Tupac?, police found the gun they believe was used in the shooting:
A .40 caliber Glock was found by a citizen in his backyard in 1998 … which he reported to police. Compton PD records show it was booked as found property on May 30, 1998. In 2000, L.A. County Sheriff’s Dept. took over law enforcement of Compton, and 3,800 confiscated firearms – including that Glock – were transferred to the LASD. Fast forward to 2006, when Deputy T. Brennan – who’d been working the Notorious B.I.G.murder – was sifting through records. According to the doc, he recognized the address where the gun was found as the home of the girlfriend of a prominent Crip member … known to have beef with Pac. The deputy immediately ordered ballistic testing, and bam — the results were a match for the firearm used to kill Tupac.
Unfortunately, federal prosecutors stopped the gun from being sent to Las Vegas Police who were investigating the case in fear “that the weapon’s discovery might tip off any conspirators involved in his death.” And what’s concerning is that A&E says it reached out to LVPD, but officers were unsure what happened to the weapon.
Even though the gun is missing, this does clear up a little bit of mystery surrounding Tupac’s death. If it was indeed a prominent Crip feuding with Tupac, that would negate many of the theories out there – including Suge Knight’s claim that he was the intended target.
The A&E documentary in which civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump investigates the death and reveals his findings to Tupac’s brother, Mopreme Shakur, airs in America on Tuesday.
