On This Day: Tupac Shakur’s final ride before fatal Las Vegas shooting
From Tyson’s Fight to Tragedy: Remembering Tupac’s Final Hours, 7 September 1996
Elohim Nyame 
On this day, 7 September 1996, American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur was photographed for the last time—just moments before he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
The 25-year-old artist, who had just attended Mike Tyson’s boxing match at the MGM Grand, was travelling with Death Row Records boss Suge Knight to the label’s nightclub, Club 662. They rode in a black BMW 750iL sedan, part of a larger convoy.
At around 11 p.m., police officers on bicycles stopped the car on Las Vegas Boulevard for playing loud music and for not displaying a number plate. The plate was later found in the boot, and the car was allowed to continue without a citation.
Barely 15 minutes later, as their car halted at a traffic light, a white Cadillac sedan pulled up alongside. In an instant, gunfire erupted from the vehicle, hitting Shakur four times—once in the arm, once in the thigh, and twice in the chest, with one round puncturing his right lung. Knight sustained minor injuries from fragments that struck his head.
Conspicuously absent was Shakur’s bodyguard, Frank Alexander, who later explained he had been ordered to drive the car of the rapper’s girlfriend, actress Kidada Jones.
The brazen attack left the music world stunned. Shakur was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, where he fought for his life for six days before succumbing to his injuries on 13 September. His death marked a pivotal moment in hip-hop history, intensifying the East Coast–West Coast rivalry and cementing his legacy as one of rap’s most influential figures.
To this day, the events of that fateful night continue to fuel speculation and debate, with questions lingering over who was behind the trigger of the white Cadillac.
