Six months after the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas--
a case in which no arrests have yet been made -- MTV
News has obtained a 29-page document prepared by police in
Compton, California, which reveals that only a few days after
Shakur's murder last September 7th, Compton police had already
learned the name of the man some local gang members
believed to be responsible for the crime.
This document, it must be emphasized, is based largely on the
words of Compton police informants. It does not legally prove
who killed Tupac, nor does it legally prove that his death was a
gang murder. Proof is the job of the courts. However, the
Compton police document does contain a startling account of the
events that led up to Shakur's murder and a shot-by-shot
account of the five day blood bath his killing seems to have set
off in Compton. A gang-war that apparently left three men dead
and ten wounded. It also deals with a host of questions as to the
identity of the man who allegedly shot Tupac Shakur.
This 29-page statement of probable cause offers some intriguing
answers. It was written up by Compton police last September
and was attached to a motion filed in February by Suge Knight's
defense team as part of their attempt to overturn Knight's
probation violation. Based largely on information provided to the
Compton police by their gang-informants, the statement (or
affidavit) gives an unverified but considerably detailed account
of gang-related activity in Compton before and after the
shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas on the night of Saturday,
September 7th.
According to the statement of probable cause, five days after
Shakur was shot, an informant with special knowledge of the
activities of the Bloods -- a man identified in the statement as
CRI or "confidential reliable informant" #3 --provided police with
a sequence of events which suggested that the shooting in Vegas
might have been the culmination of a beef that began at the
Lakewood Mall in Compton. The informant told Compton police that a
man named Travon Lane -- a Death Row affiliate also
known as "Tray" -- was at the mall's Foot Locker in July or August
of last year when he was confronted by several members
of the Southside Crips. There was a scuffle during which Lane's
Death Row medallion was taken from him.
Fast forward to September 7th in Las Vegas -- the night of the
Tyson/Seldon fight at the MGM Grand. According to the
affidavit, CRI #3 told the Compton cops that moments after the
bout, Travon Lane was walking through the hotel as part of
Death Row's entourage when he spotted a man later identified as
Orlando Anderson. The same man, Lane thought who'd taken
his medallion at the Lakewood mall two months ago. Lane pointed
the man out to Shakur. Shakur confronted Anderson with
the question "You from the South?" -- an apparent reference to the
Southside Crips. A melee ensued -- captured on tape by
MGM Grand surveillance cameras.
Little more than an hour later, as a line of Death Row cars snaked
its way to a party at Knight's Club 662, a white Cadillac with
California license plates -- according to one report -- pulled up
to the right of Shakur and Knight's vehicle. According to the
affidavit, a passenger opened fire with a Glock .40 caliber
handgun, grazing Knight and critically wounding Shakur -- as
members of the Death Row entourage watched from the cars behind
Knight's.
In the affidavit, the informant is also said to have told Compton
police he heard Travon Lane at Club 662 declaring that the
shooter was the same man who'd been in the melee at the MGM Grand
and that the shooter was "Keefee D's nephew."
According to police, Orlando Anderson is the nephew of the man
known by Compton police to be Keefee D. Both are reputed
to be Southside Crips.
Back in Compton on September 9th, the day according to the
affidavit that another informant noticed a late-model white
Cadillac being driven into a local auto shop by Orlando Anderson's
cousin-- three separate Blood sects convened at Lueders
Park. The topic of discussion, according to the affidavit? The
need to retaliate against the Southside Crips for the attack on
Tupac Shakur. Compton police were told by their informant that
five sites for drive-by shootings were chosen. Three potential
targets were singled out.
At 2:58 that afternoon at a location on East Alondra, one such man
-- whose name was mentioned to Las Vegas police as
someone who might have been riding in the white Cadillac -- was
shot in the back. The war was on.
Two days later at 9:05 on the morning of September 11th, Southside
Crip Bobby Finch was gunned down on South Mayo.
The next day, Vegas police told Compton cops that they'd received
calls that Finch had been riding in the white Cadillac. By
early morning on the 14th, five more people had been shot in what
Compton police regarded as related assaults. Meanwhile,
three Bloods were fired on and wounded in two separate shootings.
On September 13th, the day Tupac Shakur died, two more
Bloods were shot and killed by an assailant who fled on foot.
As the gang war raged, police in Compton and Las Vegas continued
to receive unsubstantiated tips that "Keefee D's nephew"
or " Baby Lane" -- aliases for Orlando Anderson -- had shot Tupac
Shakur. On the 13th, the affidavit says, one reputed
member of the Bloods identified the man who'd shot him in Compton
two days earlier as Orlando Anderson. On the 20th, an
eyewitness fingered Anderson as the triggerman in an April 1996
homicide. Around that same time, the affidavit states, an
informant told one police officer that Anderson had been spotted
with a .40 caliber Glock handgun -- a potentially significant
tip, since it hadn't yet been revealed publicly that a .40 caliber
Glock had been used in the attack on Shakur.
On October 2nd, as part of a gang sweep, Compton police arrested
Anderson in connection with that April 1996 homicide, but
the District Attorney's office declined to press charges and asked
police to gather more evidence. Compton police told MTV
News that Anderson remains the prime suspect in the April 1996
homicide, and charges are expected to be formally filed
imminently. As for Anderson's attorney, he declined to comment on
this or any other allegations contained in the affidavit. And
says that he has not been informed that his client remains the
prime suspect in that April 1996 homicide. He has previously
denied that Anderson was in any way involved with the killing of
Shakur.
While testifying under oath in Suge Knight's probation
hearing,Orlando Anderson invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked
if he was a member of the Crips and denied that Knight had
assaulted him. Vegas police questioned Anderson briefly in
October after which one Vegas cop was quoted as saying that
Anderson was not a suspect in Shakur's murder. Four months
later, Vegas Sgt. Kevin Manning told the Los Angeles Times that
Anderson was indeed a suspect in Shakur's killing, but that
the department lacks hard evidence against him. Vegas police say
that since the night of the shooting they have not been able to
speak to Travon Lane -- who the affidavit asserts was involved
with the scuffle with Anderson at the Lakewood Mall, who
pointed Anderson out to Shakur at the MGM Grand and was heard at
Club 662 hours after the shooting IDing Anderson as the
shooter. Efforts by MTV News to talk with Travon Lane were
unsuccessful.
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