Marion “Suge” Knight claims Tupac Shakur begged him to end his life while lying in the hospital after the shooting that ultimately killed him.
On September 7, 1996, Knight, then 31, and Shakur, 25, were in a black BMW 750 after leaving a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when gunmen in a Cadillac ambushed the pair, opening fire. One bullet grazed Knight’s head, while Shakur was shot four times.
Knight managed to drive to Las Vegas Boulevard, where police arrived on the scene. “I got out and tried to tell the officers what happened while I was bleeding everywhere,” Knight told People in an interview published Tuesday, July 1. “I then was getting Tupac out the car, even when the door was open. I had to go over there bleeding everywhere, take the seat belt off him.”
Shakur and Knight were rushed to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where Shakur underwent multiple surgeries.
Knight now claims that Shakur begged him to end his life. “Kill me. Shoot me,” the rapper allegedly pleaded, according to Knight.
The former Death Row mogul said Shakur was terrified that a gang-related assault earlier that night — the same night he was shot — would send him back to prison.
While Shakur allegedly expressed a desire to die, Knight said the legendary entertainer’s personal beliefs ruled out suicide as an option.
At one point, Knight also alleged, Shakur’s mother, Afeni Shakur, had promised her son not to prolong his suffering and she demanded hospital staff not try to save his life. “The doctors came in and brought him back,” he recalled. “And his mom [allegedly] said, ‘Don’t ever do that again. If he’s having complications, don’t touch him. Don’t bring him back. Let him go.’”
2Pac died six days after the shooting, on September 13, 1996. Knight said the same day as the hip-hop legend’s passing, Shakur’s mother asked that her son’s body be cremated — and he paid $1 million to fulfill her wishes.
“A bag with his ashes was passed around,” Knight told People. “His homies rolled him up. They smoked him. You gotta understand, that’s what made sense. It was symbolic. It’s like… you keep part of him.”
“I was so happy to say I was on probation — I couldn’t smoke,” Knight said. “I told his mother, ‘Moms, I’d love to, but if I hit that, I’ll get in trouble.’” He added: “I was probably the only one who didn’t hit him.”
In September 2023, Duane “Keefe D” Davis, a former Crips leader, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Shakur’s death. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial next year.
In 2018, Knight was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for a fatal hit-and-run three years earlier and sentenced to serve 28 years behind bars. Now 60, he is incarcerated at California’s Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility.
