Tupac Shakur timeline: Key events in rapper's murder investigation
Nearly three decades after rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, the case has remained unsolved.
The cold case recently saw an apparent breakthrough, with police conducting a search of a house in the Las Vegas area on July 17. The evidence in the case is now being presented to a Las Vegas grand jury, though it could take months for any charging decisions, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News following the search.
MORE: New details emerge after home searched in Tupac Shakur murder case
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.
Here's a look at the investigation into Tupac's death.
Nov. 30, 1994
Two years before the shooting that would claim his life, Tupac is shot five times during a robbery at Quad Studios in Times Square. In an interview with Vibe magazine in April 1995, he intimates producer Sean Combs and rapper Christopher Wallace, known as the Notorious B.I.G., who were at the studio, were aware it was a setup.
Sept. 7, 1996
Tupac is shot in a drive-by after leaving a boxing match at the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas strip. He was sitting in a black BMW sedan with Suge Knight, the head of his record label, when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside and a gunman opened fire, striking Tupac multiple times.
Sept. 13, 1996
Tupac dies from his injuries in the hospital at the age of 25.
Nov. 10, 1996
A witness to the drive-by is killed. Yafeu Fula, aka Yaki Kadafi, is fatally shot at an apartment building in New Jersey. He was a member of Tupac's entourage and was seated in the car behind the rapper's when the shooting occurred, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. "It just kind of adds to our frustration of this whole investigation," a homicide investigator for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told the LA Times.
March 9, 1997
The Notorious B.I.G. is shot and killed in Los Angeles. That shooting, which is widely believed to have been connected to Tupac's murder, remains unsolved.
September 1997
Orlando Anderson, a Los Angeles gang member, files a lawsuit against Tupac's estate for alleged damages he suffered in a brawl with the rapper at the MGM Grand just hours before the deadly drive-by, the LA Times reported at the time.
Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, subsequently files a wrongful-death lawsuit against Anderson, alleging that he fatally shot her son, the LA Times reported.
May 29, 1998
Anderson is shot and killed in a gang-related shooting in Los Angeles County. He was never charged in Tupac's murder and had denied any involvement.
February 2018
Netflix begins airing "Unsolved: The Tupac and Biggie Murders," a limited series that chronicled investigations by two LAPD detectives into the killings of the rappers. The Tupac probe gained new momentum following the release of the series, the law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
April 2019
Duane Keith Davis, aka Keffe D, who has said he is one of two living eyewitnesses to the shooting, along with Knight, releases the book "Compton Street Legend." Detectives also re-engaged with the Tupac case following the release of the book, the official told ABC News.
July 17, 2023
Las Vegas police conduct a court-authorized search of a residence in Henderson, Nevada, in connection with the Tupac homicide investigation. Among the items seized by investigators are computers, hard drives and magazine articles about Tupac and his death, the official said.
ABC News' Josh Margolin and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
Tupac Shakur timeline: Key events in rapper's murder investigation originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
