One of the darkest days in Las Vegas history came in September 7, 1996. The famous rapper Tupac Shakur was murdered in a drive-by shooting just a few blocks from the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur and his associate, Marion “Suge” Knight, attended the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand Garden arena, near the south end of the Strip.
After the boxing match, as the men were walking through the casino floor, they encountered a man who was involved in a major street gang, the Southside Crips, in the Los Angeles area. Members of the gang had made remarks against Shakur and Knight, so they retaliated with fists, causing a near-riot on the casino floor. Shakur, Knight, and the rest of their group were escorted off the property by casino security.
Knight drove Shakur north on the Strip that night, where fans and curious onlookers approached the car. Knight and Shakur, along with their bodyguards following in the car behind them, turned onto Flamingo Road in search of a nightclub where they could continue the party. When the cars approached the intersection of Flamingo and Koval (near the present location of the Westin Causarina Hotel), a white Cadillac pulled up next to Shakur.
The people in the Cadillac opened fire on the car, hitting Shakur multiple times. When he arrived at the University Medical Center, doctors saw that Shakur had bullet wounds in his pelvis, his right thigh, his right hand and right lung. Shakur was placed on life support machinery and underwent multiple surgeries, including the removal of his collapsed right lung. After six days, Shakur suffered internal bleeding which the doctors could not stop. He died on September 13 at the age of 25.
Some observers have speculated that Shakur’s murder was part of the “East Coast/West Coast” rap rivalry between Knight’s record label, Death Row, and the New York-based Bad Boy Records, owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs. One of the stars of the Bad Boy label was Christopher Wallace, better known as “Notorious B.I.G.”. Wallace was gunned down while visiting Los Angeles in March 1997, apparently as retaliation for Shakur’s murder.
Both Shakur’s and Wallace’s murders have yet to be solved, with no apparent leads and no progress in the investigations.