Tupac Shakur was tragically murdered in a drive-by shooting near the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane on September 13, 1996. More than 25 years later, the identity of his killer still remains a mystery. During a recent interview with the Art Of Dialogue, former police sergeant, Chris Carroll who was the first responder on the scene of the shooting details Pac’s final moments. Reflecting on the tragic night from his point of view, Chris revealed that Tupac’s BMW 750i L blew out its tires and spun out of control as they attempted to escape the scene of the shooting.
“So Tupac’s car was was right in the middle of a five car entourage. When they left the scene they hit a curb and blown out both of the right hand side tires of their vehicle,” he recalled.
“So they hang a left which sends them directly towards me. They’re heading towards me and I’m heading towards them. They’re heading southbound and I’m heading northbound. So we’re coming we’re coming at each other. So right at harmon in the strip, they go to hang a left, they’re going too fast and their tires are blown out. So when they got to my intersection they spin out of the intersection and lose control of the vehicle and the whole entourage comes to a stop.”
As the doors popped open, Chris found himself facing eight individuals, and he immediately pulled out his gun, demanding everyone to get on the ground.
“As soon as everybody stops, their doors pop open and you get like eight guys all of a sudden standing there.” He explains he pulled out his gun yelling at “everybody to get on the ground,” noting the reluctance from some of the entourage to comply.
Amid the chaos, Chris noticed another car with bullet holes and a bleeding Suge Knight, who had been shot in the head.
“When I approached the car I could see it’s got bullet holes. It’s got bullet holes all around the handle… the passenger’s window is shot and broken and there’s also bullet holes in the right side of the windshield.” He said he tried to get the doors open but he couldn’t because “the bullets had damaged the mechanism for the door latch.”
Chris noted Suge Knight was surprisingly calm, despite blood streaming from his scalp.
“Suge Knight had been shot in the head, what had happened was his scalp was penetrated but not his skull so he literally got blood flying out the side of his head, but he’s running around like nothings happening. His fine.
“Finally the door popped up, [Tupac] was leaning at the door and when I popped it open he sort of fell out with the door.”
“Suge is yelling at Pac ‘like Pac Pac!’ and I could tell right away that [Tupac] was in bad shape. He’s bleeding out of his mouth and nose, he’s got multiple torso hits, there’s so much blood, I can’t even tell exactly where he’s hit because he’s bleeding so badly.
I looked at him and I was like this guy is probably gonna die. I could tell looking at him, it was a bad Situation… I looked at him, I’m going man ‘who shot you? who did this, what happened?’ And he’s just kind of ignoring.”
“I looked at him and I said ‘you know who did this?’ and all of a sudden, in that instant snap he went from trying to yell, trying to squirm, trying to get Suge’s attention, he just went totally peaceful. Like he just totally stopped… I looked at him and now he looked at me, and it’s kind of the first time he’s even acknowledging that I’m there. And I go ‘what happened man?’ I go ‘who shot you? who did this?’ And he looked at me. I actually thought he was going to tell me and he got his breath together and he looked at me and he said ‘f**k you’ and after he said this his eyes kind of rolled back in his head and started gurgling blood coming out of his mouth and nose and he slipped out of consciousness. So that would be his last words that he ever said.”
According to Chris, medical personnel at the hospital where Tupac was receiving treatment later confirmed that the “All Eyes On Me” rapper was already dead when he got to the hospital.
“He’s got a machine keeping his heart going but as far as the real life and the brain activity and stuff there’s nothing,” said Chris. “So which is he stays alive until his mother, days later decides to remove him from life support.”
His version of the events slightly contradicts initial comments made by former Death Row CEO Suge knight who was driving the vehicle at the time of the shooting. About a week after Pac’s death, Suge claimed in an interview with MTV News that Tupac was conscious and cracking jokes on their way to the hospital.
“Pac saved my life,” said Suge, referencing his head wound. “And the reason I say that is because trying to get him to the hospital didn’t make me realize I was shot. ‘Cause usually when you get shot in the head the first thing the person do is panic… ‘I’m like you shot, I’m finna get you to the hospital.’ I’m driving telling him I’m finna get him to the hospital, kick back. Pac looked at me and said ‘you know what? You need a doctor more than me, you the one shot in your head,’ and we laughed our way to the hospital. That’s the conversation we had. Pac was a man the whole time, he cracking jokes.”
Suge added “He was conscious on the way to the hospital, he was conscious on the ambulance, he was conscious after they did the surgery.”
Do you think Suge was lying?
