Magazine articles about Tupac Shakur and his death were among items seized by police from a Las Vegas-area home in connection with the rapper’s decades-old murder case, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
Police served a search warrant in Henderson, Nevada, on Monday as part of the ongoing homicide investigation, Las Vegas police said.
The search of the residence is being viewed as a success, according to the official, though detectives doubt any of the belongings retrieved could present a direct link between the target of the investigation and the drive–by shooting that killed Tupac along the Strip in 1996.
In addition to the magazine articles on Tupac, items retrieved from the home included computers, hard drives and pictures from the 1990s that apparently show individuals who might have been connected to people directly or indirectly involved in the drive-by shooting, the official said. Copies of the book “Compton Street Legend” by Duane Keith Davis, aka Keffe D, who has said he is one of two living eyewitnesses to the shooting, were also seized, according to the official.
Records connected with the search are currently sealed.
Las Vegas homicide detectives and prosecutors determined by Monday night they had enough information to proceed with a court-authorized search, the official said. The search was conducted at about 10 p.m. local time, with Las Vegas Metro PD SWAT on hand. The scene was described as loud, with police using bullhorns and lights.
The evidence in the case is now being presented to a Las Vegas grand jury. Charging decisions have not yet been made and are not imminent, the official said; it could take months for the grand jury to decide whether to indict anyone.
Investigators have long believed the gunman is likely already dead, the victim of a separate shooting two years after the Vegas drive–by. The current investigation could lead to a determination of who was in the car with the gunman when the rounds were fired that killed Tupac. That could lead to someone being charged as an accomplice.
The celebrated hip-hop artist was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas and died in the hospital six days later from his injuries at the age of 25.
Tupac had attended a boxing match with Suge Knight in Vegas the day he was shot. He was in a black sedan on Las Vegas Boulevard when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside and someone opened fire.
No arrests have ever been made in the case.
Months after the Tupac drive-by, rapper Christopher Wallace — aka the Notorious B.I.G. — was shot and killed in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. That shooting is widely believed to have been connected to Tupac’s murder and also remains unsolved.
The Tupac probe gained new momentum after 2018, the official said. Detectives re-engaged in the case after Netflix aired “Unsolved: The Tupac and Biggie Murders” in 2018, and the book “Compton Street Legend” came out in 2019.
By ABC News
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