possession. By now it’s been too long. Even with fingerprints, it wouldn’t be too useful.”
In fact, he added, “Even a confession wouldn’t solve the case, without concrete physical evidence.”
Reports that there was more than one gunman were not true, Manning noted. Also, reports by a cub reporter in one local newspaper that the gunman had gotten out of the car to shoot Tupac were unfounded, he said. The security guards and some of the members of the entourage had gotten out of their cars, and witnesses in the confusion might have thought that one of them was the shooter, Manning said.
• • •
Richard Fischbein, the Manhattan attorney administering Shakur’s multimillion-dollar estate and representing Tupac’s mother, said in a telephone interview, “It’s an outrage that the Las Vegas police are sitting around waiting for a suspect to come to them. I believe that had [Afeni] been anyone else, they would have had the courtesy to call her, to keep in contact to tell her what is going on.
“Afeni’s comment is, it’s not going to bring her son back if they catch the killers or they don’t ... catch them,” Fischbein said. “On the other hand, it would be nice if the Las Vegas Police Department tried, because that would be the right thing to do. It would show that it doesn’t matter who you are—if you get shot, the police are going to be there to do something about it.”
But homicide Lieutenant Petersen took issue with the statement, saying that it was Shakur’s mother who, when contacted by detectives, had refused to talk to them .
“The first time we contacted Mrs. Shakur, she would not talk to us. All other contacts were made through her attorney,” Petersen said.
Interestingly, officers had had ample opportunity to interview Mrs. Shakur. She was at the hospital off and on during the six days Tupac was on life support. According to family members and friends, detectives never approached her.
A local radio personality intimated that it was prejudiceand not a lack of cooperation that prevented an early resolution to the case. Louis Conner, a deejay for KCEP (now known as Power 88 on FM 88.1) radio in Las Vegas, whose on-air name is LC, said that if Tupac had not been a gangsta rapper, police might have worked harder to solve the case. LC said he played Tupac’s music the remainder of the day Tupac passed away “as a tribute to him.” He said he doesn’t understand why police haven’t made more progress in their investigation.
“It’s unfortunate that Metro Police have not been able to make an arrest in the Shakur case,” LC said several months into the investigation. “Maybe they’re out of manpower, I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a black-and-white issue. I think it’s what Tupac represented, what he rapped about in his music. I think that makes it another type of prejudice. A lot of prejudices and stereotypes went into this case, and that’s one of the things holding up the investigation process. I think they’re working on it. They’re just going about it at their own pace.”
Sway, a disk jockey on San Francisco’s KMEL radio station, agreed that police could have done more in attempting to find Tupac’s killer.
In an interview from his San Francisco studio, Sway elaborated, saying, “This is hard for me to believe—that somebody as visible as Tupac can, during prime time in Las Vegas, just get massacred on the Strip. It doesn’t seem like that’s possible in 1997 without somebody knowing something.
“I don’t think the powers that be give a damn that another little ghetto kid gets killed in the streets. It’s not important to them to solve this case. I think they feel it’s another headache killed in the streets. It doesn’t serve their time and energy to solve the case of Tupac Shakur. I think it’s just another day in America. If it was one of theirs, the killer probably would have been convicted and sentenced to death by now. From what
In fact, he added, “Even a confession wouldn’t solve the case, without concrete physical evidence.”
Reports that there was more than one gunman were not true, Manning noted. Also, reports by a cub reporter in one local newspaper that the gunman had gotten out of the car to shoot Tupac were unfounded, he said. The security guards and some of the members of the entourage had gotten out of their cars, and witnesses in the confusion might have thought that one of them was the shooter, Manning said.
• • •
Richard Fischbein, the Manhattan attorney administering Shakur’s multimillion-dollar estate and representing Tupac’s mother, said in a telephone interview, “It’s an outrage that the Las Vegas police are sitting around waiting for a suspect to come to them. I believe that had [Afeni] been anyone else, they would have had the courtesy to call her, to keep in contact to tell her what is going on.
“Afeni’s comment is, it’s not going to bring her son back if they catch the killers or they don’t ... catch them,” Fischbein said. “On the other hand, it would be nice if the Las Vegas Police Department tried, because that would be the right thing to do. It would show that it doesn’t matter who you are—if you get shot, the police are going to be there to do something about it.”
But homicide Lieutenant Petersen took issue with the statement, saying that it was Shakur’s mother who, when contacted by detectives, had refused to talk to them .
“The first time we contacted Mrs. Shakur, she would not talk to us. All other contacts were made through her attorney,” Petersen said.
Interestingly, officers had had ample opportunity to interview Mrs. Shakur. She was at the hospital off and on during the six days Tupac was on life support. According to family members and friends, detectives never approached her.
A local radio personality intimated that it was prejudiceand not a lack of cooperation that prevented an early resolution to the case. Louis Conner, a deejay for KCEP (now known as Power 88 on FM 88.1) radio in Las Vegas, whose on-air name is LC, said that if Tupac had not been a gangsta rapper, police might have worked harder to solve the case. LC said he played Tupac’s music the remainder of the day Tupac passed away “as a tribute to him.” He said he doesn’t understand why police haven’t made more progress in their investigation.
“It’s unfortunate that Metro Police have not been able to make an arrest in the Shakur case,” LC said several months into the investigation. “Maybe they’re out of manpower, I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a black-and-white issue. I think it’s what Tupac represented, what he rapped about in his music. I think that makes it another type of prejudice. A lot of prejudices and stereotypes went into this case, and that’s one of the things holding up the investigation process. I think they’re working on it. They’re just going about it at their own pace.”
Sway, a disk jockey on San Francisco’s KMEL radio station, agreed that police could have done more in attempting to find Tupac’s killer.
In an interview from his San Francisco studio, Sway elaborated, saying, “This is hard for me to believe—that somebody as visible as Tupac can, during prime time in Las Vegas, just get massacred on the Strip. It doesn’t seem like that’s possible in 1997 without somebody knowing something.
“I don’t think the powers that be give a damn that another little ghetto kid gets killed in the streets. It’s not important to them to solve this case. I think they feel it’s another headache killed in the streets. It doesn’t serve their time and energy to solve the case of Tupac Shakur. I think it’s just another day in America. If it was one of theirs, the killer probably would have been convicted and sentenced to death by now. From what
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