A suspect in the murder of US rapper Tupac Shakur around 27 years ago has pleaded not guilty in court. The 60-year-old appeared in a dark blue detention suit and handcuffs before Judge Tierra Jones in Las Vegas, Nevada, as US media consistently reported.
The former gang leader was arrested in Las Vegas in September and charged with, among other things, murder with use of a deadly weapon. A few months earlier, the man’s home in the city of Henderson near Las Vegas had been searched.
The defendant himself had spoken publicly several times in recent years about the fact that he was sitting in the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired at Shakur in Las Vegas in 1996. The 60-year-old said in interviews that he was the only occupant of the car who was still alive. The fatal shots were fired by his nephew. He himself died in a shooting in 1998.
Police describe the defendant as the mastermind
Police now described the defendant as the mastermind of the Sept. 7, 1996, murder, when the 25-year-old Shakur was shot in a car in Las Vegas and died in the hospital six days later. On the night of the crime, the rapper was with Suge Knight, co-founder of the Death Row Records label known for gangsta rap.
Shakur was one of the most successful rap artists of the 1990s. The hip-hop star was at times involved in drug trafficking and other crime, and he also went to prison. Millions of fans worldwide still adore the rapper and his music. In 2017, the musician was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland (Ohio). Last June he was posthumously honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
