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Orlando Anderson’s short, violent path to becoming Tupac Shakur’s prime suspect is laid out in new detail in FBI notes that surfaced in court Wednesday.
Former FBI agent Wade Lee testified about a 1998 interview with Keefe D that traces Anderson’s story from a Compton mall fight to his own death two years later.
The notes describe an earlier altercation between Anderson’s South Side Compton Crips and rival Blood gang members at a Compton mall, weeks before Shakur was killed.
That beef followed Anderson to Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, when Suge Knight and Blood gang associates jumped him inside the MGM Grand casino.
Davis and Anderson were furious after that beating but held back from retaliating with so many police officers still around the casino. They didn’t have to wait long.
According to Davis’ own memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” the group spotted Shakur riding in a BMW alongside Knight on the Las Vegas Strip within hours of the MGM Grand attack.
Davis wrote that he had already obtained a gun and gathered Anderson and two others into a white Cadillac before that sighting. When they saw Shakur’s car, the group made a U-turn and pulled up alongside it at a red light.
Davis said he passed the weapon into the back seat, where Anderson was sitting, and Anderson fired the shots that killed Shakur.
That timeline put Anderson at the center of the investigation almost immediately. Police and Davis’ own circle pointed to him as the shooter, though Anderson always denied firing the shots and was never charged in Shakur’s death.
A war between the South Side Compton Crips and Compton Blood gangs broke out in the killing’s aftermath. Davis told agents his group lost member Bobby Finch during that war, and another associate, Darnell Brim, was shot.
The conflict kept investigators chasing leads across rival Compton gangs for months, complicating an already difficult case, according to NPR’s reporting on the investigation.
Despite the earlier beating, Davis said Anderson later testified favorably for Knight at one of Knight’s probation violation hearings. Davis told agents he never saw evidence that Knight held the MGM Grand attack against Anderson afterward.
Anderson’s own death came less than two years after Shakur’s, on May 29, 1998, a day after Davis’ federal arrest.
According to the notes, Anderson and an associate known as Owl ran into three members of the Corner Pocket Crips that afternoon. Two of the men were brothers who shared the last name Stone, and the third was identified only as Danny.
Davis said Danny had been mouthing off about Anderson for days before pulling a .25-caliber pistol and opening fire first.
Anderson pulled his own gun and shot back, killing both Stone brothers before he and Owl fled the scene. It was only after driving off that Anderson realized he had been hit by gunfire, and he later died from the wound.
Anderson never lived to answer the accusation that followed him, and that same account from Davis’ memoir now forms the basis of the case prosecutors are using against Davis in Las Vegas this week.
