Mar 21, 1997353 words · 2 min
Orlando Anderson on CNN: 'I Didn't Do It'
March 1997: Orlando Anderson, named by informants as Tupac's killer, appears on CNN and proclaims his innocence, saying he feels like a scapegoat.
Original: “Orlando Anderson Speaks About Tupac Murder” · MTV News · no byline · March 21, 1997
On Thursday, March 20, 1997, a 22-year-old sits in a CNN studio defending himself. Three days earlier, MTV had quoted from a Compton police affidavit: gang informants named Orlando Anderson as the man who shot Tupac. Now Anderson steps into the public eye. His message that day: “I didn’t do it.” He feels, he says, like a scapegoat.
Living Like a Prisoner
Next to Anderson sits his attorney, Edi M. O. Faal. His client is now living almost like a prisoner, Faal explains: he has to think carefully about when and where he goes. In the interview, Anderson himself denies being a Crip-Compton police view it differently.
MTV critically notes what CNN did not ask: about allegations that Anderson was involved in another murder in April 1996 and a shooting in October 1996. He was not charged in either case.
The Best-Known Name in the Case
At that point, Anderson was the best-known name in the case. Hours before the shooting, Tupac and Death Row associates had beaten him at the MGM Grand. Compton police informants named him as the shooter (see MTV special report on the murder). In September 1997, he repeated his proclamation of innocence in the Los Angeles Times and called Tupac his role model. On May 29, 1998, he died in Compton in a shootout that had nothing to do with Tupac.
Late Verdict Against His Uncle
Anderson was never charged. Nearly three decades later, on August 31, 2026, a Las Vegas jury found his uncle Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of murder (not final, as of October 2026). Davis had testified that Anderson was in the Cadillac with him. However, the prosecution did not commit to who fired the shots; it argued that Davis handed the gun to someone in the back seat. Whether Anderson’s “I didn’t do it” was true therefore remains open.
Note: The first sentence in the archived text was garbled. MTV’s weekly news review gave the interview day as Wednesday, the news report itself as Thursday.
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