Murder of American rapper Tupac Shakur 27 years ago – Suspect charged Germany: Missing 14-year-old found dead – Police arrest young man

The murder of famed American rapper Tupac Shakur (“All Eyez on Me”) was a mystery for 27 years – now a suspect is in custody. The 60-year-old was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada. The former gang leader has been indicted by a grand jury for, among other things, murder with the use of a deadly weapon, police and prosecutors announced on Friday (local time) in Las Vegas.

Shakur’s family had been waiting for “justice” for 27 years, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said. The researchers put countless hours and decades of work into the study. However, initially there was not enough evidence to take the case to trial. Ultimately, the arrestee’s own words helped further the investigation, says Jason Johansson of the homicide department. In July, police ordered a search of his home in the city of Henderson, Nevada.

The suspect himself had spoken publicly several times in recent years about being in the white Cadillac from which Shakur was shot in Las Vegas in 1996. He said in interviews that he was the only occupant of the car still alive. The 60-year-old insisted that his cousin fired the fatal shots. He himself died in a shooting in 1998. The now arrested man also wrote in 2019 about his past in a notorious Californian gang in his memoirs ‘Compton Street Legend’.

Police now describe the suspect as the mastermind behind the murder on September 7, 1996, when 25-year-old Shakur was shot in a car in Las Vegas and died in hospital six days later. On the night of the crime, the rapper was out with Suge Knight, co-founder of the label Death Row Records, which is known for gangsta rap.

They had previously seen a Mike Tyson boxing match in the casino city. Investigator Johansson said that a fight then took place in a hotel in which a cousin of the now arrested man was beaten up by Shakur and Knight. The uncle and cousin belonged to a Southern California gang that was enemies of the gang Suge Knight was close to.

Motivated by revenge, the defendant grabbed a gun and then handed it to the men sitting in the back of the white Cadillac so they could shoot Shakur and Knight in the moving car. Even if the man had not used the weapon himself, he could still be prosecuted in the murder case according to the law, prosecutor Steve Wolfson emphasized on Friday.

The rapper’s family reacted cautiously to the news of the arrest. This is a “defining moment,” Shakur’s sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, chairman of the “Tupac Amaru Shakur” Foundation, wrote on Instagram. However, she will reserve her judgment until all facts and legal proceedings have been completed. For Shakur’s stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, this was a “bittersweet” development. The police had been aware of the suspect for some time, he said, according to CNN. “Why now?” the American broadcaster quoted the brother as saying. “It’s not over yet for us. We want to know why and whether there were accomplices.”

“Now I hope we can get some answers and some closure,” wrote American actress Jada Pinkett Smith (52) in an Instagram story. According to US media reports, she and Shakur had known each other since the late 1980s and were close friends.

The unsolved murder case led to speculation about possible motives or perpetrators. Conflicts between rival rappers from the east and west coasts also came into play. This became clear in March 1997 after the violent and still unexplained death of rapper Notorious BIG. The native New Yorker represented rap on the East Coast; he was shot in a car in Los Angeles.

Shakur was one of the most successful rap artists of the 1990s. In countless songs he portrayed life as a gangster and called for rebellion against racism and poverty in the black ghettos. The hip-hop star was sometimes involved in drug trafficking and other crime, and he also ended up in prison.

Millions of fans worldwide still love the rapper and his music. In 2017, the musician was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland (Ohio). Last June, he was posthumously honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

In July, a ring that Shakur himself designed and wore during his last public appearance was auctioned in New York for approximately one million dollars (about 950,000 euros). According to auction house Sotheby’s, this was the highest amount ever paid for hip-hop memorabilia at auction. (cst/sda/dpa)