The Killing of Tupac Shakur by Cathy Scott Read Free Book Online Page A

coming out after all. A hospital employee told me that Pugh felt he might be putting himself in danger by walking outside the hospital amid members of the press and waiting fans.
    Pugh, however, later told me, “I never had a plan to come down and talk to the news media. Our decision was made. We knew how we were going to handle it if [Tupac] passed away. Our efforts were to call everyone in the press.We’d had so many telephone calls concerning it. The media from around the world was calling, besides [receiving] calls from fans. The hospital was deluged with calls about Tupac.
    “Our main thing was to inform the local media that he had died and then return telephone calls. That’s how we handled it because of the volume. I don’t think we’ve ever in the history of this hospital held a press conference, nor will we probably ever do that. That’s not the way we choose to handle that kind of thing.”
    Many hospitals, especially in California, hold press conferences to respond to high-volume inquiries about famous people. That way, they’re responding to everyone at the same time without having to return every call. Not in Las Vegas at that time. Since then, when another celebrity, actor and model Lauren Hutton, was seriously injured in October 2000 in a motorcycle accident, the hospital set up a hotline, with a recording giving periodic updates on her condition.
    “To have celebrities here is not unusual,” Dale Pugh said. “We’ve had [lots of them]. I remember one out-of-state politician who was here. Bob Stupak [a flamboyant casino mogul who was critically injured in a 1995 motorcycle accident] was here – that’s well known. Brent Thurman, the National Finals Rodeo rider who died, was here. In none of those instances did we hold any sort of press conference. We did individual news interviews.”
    As it turned out, it was a peaceful and somber crowd – mostly mourners – that stood vigil for Tupac outside the hospital that last afternoon and into the evening. No one appeared to be threatening. Cars slowly drove by the hospital as word of Tupac Shakur’s death spread across the TV, radio, and Internet airwaves. Some passengers in the cars threw gang hand signs at the people standing outside, but no one reacted. Tupac’s lyrics blared from car stereos.

    • • •

    Tupac’s futile six-day battle to survive marked the end of a lifetime racked with emotional and physical struggles, first on the streets and later on the entertainment scene.
    His death rocked the gangsta rap world to its core. Black leaders called for peace among the rappers, and politicians, including then-Vice President Al Gore’s wife, Tipper, during a visit to Las Vegas, denounced the violence in gangsta-rap lyrics. (Tipper Gore, past head of the Parents Music Resource Council, was instrumental in creating and lobbying for Parental Advisory Stickers on CDs and tapes.)
    Gang member Marcos, a friend of Tupac who declined to give his last name, made a telling statement while standing outside the University Medical Center in Las Vegas the day Tupac died. “We know who did it,” he said. “I’m just saying that whoever did this is going to get found. The people who find him, I don’t know what they’ll do, but they’ll take care of it in their own way. I mean, the pay back, it’s already started.” He didn’t name names. The week after Tupac Shakur was shot, bullets riddled the gang-infested streets of Los Angeles, particularly Compton, as drive-by shootings broke out at a record pace. Southern California police noted 12 retaliation shootings – three deadly – the following week.
    Spelled out in an affidavit written by Compton Police Detective Tim Brennan is a shot-by-shot account of a five-day bloodbath in Compton prompted by Tupac’s shooting. War was declared between two notorious Compton gangs, the South Side Crips and the Mob Pirus. Both of the gangs were said to have strong ties with the Las Vegas shooting, namely Suge