believed he mighthave been a snake, an informant for those wanting to plant someone inside the investigation.”
Besides the possible betrayal by one of their own, Las Vegas police also had to watch their backs with out-of-town police officers, as well, who might have alliances with gang members.
“Every step of this investigation everybody had to be careful,” the same police source said. “These guys [rappers] employ tons of cops. When this thing hit here, right away the Los Angeles agency down there called and said, ‘Hey, we want to help.’ All they wanted to do was pick their brains for information.”
An LAPD detective, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used, said he didn’t believe it was that Las Vegas and Los Angeles-area police didn’t trust each other, but that they had to protect inside information.
“Those kinds of things go on all the time between agencies,” he said. “Everybody’s protecting their information. These are high-profile cases and nobody wants to make a mistake. I don’t know if there’s distrust [from LVMPD]. When all your witnesses live in Los Angeles, it makes it difficult logistically to investigate it in Las Vegas.”
New York City police also had called homicide detectives in Las Vegas looking for information. Sergeant Manning, too, had telephoned NYPD to talk about the first time Tupac was shot, in Manhattan in 1994.
“We talked to numerous people in New York,” Manning said. “The thing that was interesting, every time I talked to someone in New York, I asked, ‘Who’s case is this?’ I talked to someone who said it was his case, then I’d call back and someone else would say it’s their case. I finally asked a lieutenant to help straighten it out. I couldn’t believe they had all these guys in charge of this [one] investigation. The funny thing was, they stopped calling me back after that. Most of them seemed to be on fishing expeditions rather than trying to find out [information] for their investigation. I couldn’t hazard a guess why.”
On the other hand, another police source said, “Compton [police], without even asking, sent a six-man investigative team made up of L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Compton PD [to Las Vegas]. They were very helpful. They shared information as to who in law enforcement to be leery of, who was working for [various] gang members.” The officers spent two days with homicide detectives in Las Vegas.
A law-enforcement agent elaborated on the dynamics of protecting police investigations from infiltration: “In traditional organized-crime investigations, the old La Cosa Nostra [Mafia] kinds of investigations, police always had to be leery of outside officers until they knew the answers, because that was a very common way for bad guys to get information. If you’re a successful bad guy, you try to develop sources in the good-guy community, that being law enforcement. It’s a possibility [in the Tupac investigation]. It’s always been that way.”
The fact that it was still that way during the investigation into Tupac’s murder was underscored by a peculiar incident in Los Angeles in March of 1997. Detective Frank J. Lyga, an undercover police officer wearing civilian clothes and driving an unmarked police car, radioed his fellow officers that he was being followed and harassed by a motorist who, it turned out, was also an out-of-uniform off-duty cop, Officer Kevin L. Gaines.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the confrontation began with Lyga and Gaines staring each other down at a red light. It then escalated into a verbal confrontation.
An unnamed source close to the investigation told the Los Angeles Daily News that Gaines had rolled down the window of his car.
He told Lyga to quit staring him down or he would shoot him. That’s when Lyga reportedly drove away and radioed dispatchers that he was having trouble with the motorist. A few blocks later, the officers were again next to each other at a
Besides the possible betrayal by one of their own, Las Vegas police also had to watch their backs with out-of-town police officers, as well, who might have alliances with gang members.
“Every step of this investigation everybody had to be careful,” the same police source said. “These guys [rappers] employ tons of cops. When this thing hit here, right away the Los Angeles agency down there called and said, ‘Hey, we want to help.’ All they wanted to do was pick their brains for information.”
An LAPD detective, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used, said he didn’t believe it was that Las Vegas and Los Angeles-area police didn’t trust each other, but that they had to protect inside information.
“Those kinds of things go on all the time between agencies,” he said. “Everybody’s protecting their information. These are high-profile cases and nobody wants to make a mistake. I don’t know if there’s distrust [from LVMPD]. When all your witnesses live in Los Angeles, it makes it difficult logistically to investigate it in Las Vegas.”
New York City police also had called homicide detectives in Las Vegas looking for information. Sergeant Manning, too, had telephoned NYPD to talk about the first time Tupac was shot, in Manhattan in 1994.
“We talked to numerous people in New York,” Manning said. “The thing that was interesting, every time I talked to someone in New York, I asked, ‘Who’s case is this?’ I talked to someone who said it was his case, then I’d call back and someone else would say it’s their case. I finally asked a lieutenant to help straighten it out. I couldn’t believe they had all these guys in charge of this [one] investigation. The funny thing was, they stopped calling me back after that. Most of them seemed to be on fishing expeditions rather than trying to find out [information] for their investigation. I couldn’t hazard a guess why.”
On the other hand, another police source said, “Compton [police], without even asking, sent a six-man investigative team made up of L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and Compton PD [to Las Vegas]. They were very helpful. They shared information as to who in law enforcement to be leery of, who was working for [various] gang members.” The officers spent two days with homicide detectives in Las Vegas.
A law-enforcement agent elaborated on the dynamics of protecting police investigations from infiltration: “In traditional organized-crime investigations, the old La Cosa Nostra [Mafia] kinds of investigations, police always had to be leery of outside officers until they knew the answers, because that was a very common way for bad guys to get information. If you’re a successful bad guy, you try to develop sources in the good-guy community, that being law enforcement. It’s a possibility [in the Tupac investigation]. It’s always been that way.”
The fact that it was still that way during the investigation into Tupac’s murder was underscored by a peculiar incident in Los Angeles in March of 1997. Detective Frank J. Lyga, an undercover police officer wearing civilian clothes and driving an unmarked police car, radioed his fellow officers that he was being followed and harassed by a motorist who, it turned out, was also an out-of-uniform off-duty cop, Officer Kevin L. Gaines.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the confrontation began with Lyga and Gaines staring each other down at a red light. It then escalated into a verbal confrontation.
An unnamed source close to the investigation told the Los Angeles Daily News that Gaines had rolled down the window of his car.
He told Lyga to quit staring him down or he would shoot him. That’s when Lyga reportedly drove away and radioed dispatchers that he was having trouble with the motorist. A few blocks later, the officers were again next to each other at a
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