Events Surrounding The Shooting of Tupac Shakur
On the night of September 7, 1996 Anderson and Shakur's entourage were involved in a scuffle at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas just three hours before Shakur's shooting. These events led to public speculation, but after two days of questioning Anderson in detention the Las Vegas homicide detective Lt. Larry Spinosa told the media, "At this point, Orlando Anderson is not a suspect in the shooting of Tupac Shakur.". Later in the investigation, Anderson was named a suspect. Stories circulated on the street that Anderson had bragged about shooting the rapper, which he denied in an interview for VIBE magazine later. Anderson was caught up in a round up of suspects in Compton almost a month after the shooting, with 21 other alleged gang members. Anderson was detained and questioned, but not charged. However, the raid was only tangentially connected to the Tupac shooting as Compton police admitted they were investigating local shootings and not the one in Las Vegas. Though both jurisdictions investigated a possible connection between Anderson and the shooting on the Las Vegas Strip they were unable to link him directly to the crime, and no criminal charges were ever filed.
A year later, Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Anderson in response to a lawsuit Anderson filed against Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, Tupac's estate and others in the Death Row organization. Anderson's lawsuit was in regards to injuries resulting from the scuffle that evening in 1996 - Anderson claimed to have suffered both emotional and physical pain and that he was beaten badly during the altercation. Afeni Shakur's lawsuit was filed just four days after Anderson's lawsuit was filed. The Associated Press reported in 2000 that Shakur's estate and Anderson's estate settled the competing lawsuits hours before the death of Orlando Anderson. - although only his lawyer offered a dollar figure attached to the settlement which he claimed would have netted Anderson $78,000.
In the aforementioned VIBE interview with Sanyika Shakur, (a.k.a. "Monster" Kody Scott), and in his first remarks to the media, Anderson professed to being a fan and an admirer of Tupac Shakur and his music. He said he was cleared by Las Vegas police after two days of questioning. The interviewer also remarked on the striking physical resemblance between Anderson and Shakur.
In October 2011, former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who was once the lead investigator in the murder of Christopher "Biggie Smalls" Wallace, came out with a book which alleges that Sean “Diddy” Combs commissioned Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis to take out Tupac Shakur, along with Knight, for one million dollars. Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis is the uncle of Orlando Anderson and detective Kading claims that Orlando was present in the vehicle which pulled up next to the BMW which Tupac was shot in.
Read more about this topic: Orlando Anderson
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