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Report: Two men say they saw rapper's assailants
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two men who witnessed the fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur say they saw the rap star's attackers, but police never showed them photographs of possible suspects, the Los Angeles Times reported today.
Both witnesses - members of Shakur's entourage - were in a car just behind the BMW that Shakur was riding when he was ambushed Sept. 7 at a busy intersection near the Las Vegas Strip.
Shakur was shot four times and died six days later in a local hospital. The driver of the BMW, Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight, suffered graze wounds.
Malcolm Greenridge, a rap singer and member of Shakur's former back-up quartet, said he saw four African-American men in a white Cadillac drive past his car just before Shakur was shot but didn't see who pulled the trigger.
Frank Alexander, a former Shakur bodyguard and the driver of the car Greenridge was riding in, said he caught a brief glimpse of the shooter's face.
Both men promised to cooperate with investigators if they're asked to identify suspects, but both said they're also distrustful of Las Vegas police.
"Could I identify the killer of my friend Tupac Shakur if the police showed me photos or a lineup of suspects? Possibly so," Alexander said. "The thing is that the Las Vegas Metro Police never even tried to show me a photo of the shooter. Nor did they call me at any time for a lineup or to ask me anything concerning the shooting and death of Tupac."
Greenridge and Alexander said they didn't try to contact Las Vegas detectives in the five months after Shakur's death because they were harassed by police who ignored their initial accounts of the shooting.
Both men decided to make their complaints public because they were tired of hearing Las Vegas police blame their failure to solve the Shakur murder on uncooperative members of the rapper's entourage.
When told of the claims of Alexander and Greenridge, Las Vegas police disputed the men's account of what they told detectives on the night of the shooting. But they said their statements could provide a major break in the probe.
The investigation has narrowed down to a few suspects, but police said they doubt that anyone will ever be arrested unless a witness emerges who can identify the shooter.
"Malcolm Greenridge and Frank Alexander gave us taped statements on the night of the shooting that are totally inconsistent with what they told the L.A. Times. We would welcome their additional information and are surprised that they haven't contacted us sooner," Las Vegas Metro Police Sgt. Kevin Manning said.
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