...as reported by MTv.com
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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