The shootings of 1994 and 1996

Shortly after midnight, in the lobby of a recording studio in Times Square, two men pull pistols and demand the jewelry. On November 30, 1994, Tupac Shakur refused, fought back, and was shot and robbed. He survived. Police called it a robbery; Tupac called it a setup.

Out of that night grew the conflict with the New York label Bad Boy that would shape the next two years of hip-hop. Who ordered the attack has never been settled in any court.

Established: in the early hours of November 30, 1994, Tupac was robbed and shot in the lobby of Quad Studios, and Freddie Moore was wounded as well. The robbers apparently knew he was coming, and they were after his jewelry. Nobody was ever charged.

Not established: that The Notorious B.I.G. or Sean Combs knew about the attack. There is no evidence of it, and both always denied it. The trail to Jimmy Henchman rests on an inmate's confession and on contradictory reports about what Rosemond told prosecutors.

Late on the evening of September 7, 1996, a black BMW with its passenger window open stood at the red light at Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. A white Cadillac pulled up on its right. Tupac Shakur, who had already been shot once at Quad Studios in New York two years earlier, was hit by gunfire from a moving car. He held on for six more days and died at 25.

The case went 27 years without a charge; only in 2023 was a man arrested. Where the case stands now is covered on The investigation.

For 27 years the case went without a charge. In September 2023 Duane "Keffe D" Davis, Anderson's uncle, was arrested in Henderson near Las Vegas and charged with murder. In interviews and a book he had himself described being in the Cadillac. On August 31, 2026, a Las Vegas jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. Prosecutors had not accused him of firing the shots himself, but of planning the attack and supplying the gun.

As of October 2026 the verdict is not final: sentencing is set for October 13, 2026, and Davis has announced an appeal and now maintains his innocence. How the case unfolded is described on The investigation, 1996 to today; the many theories surrounding Tupac's death are covered on Theories.