Orlando Anderson is a deceased gang member from Los Angeles, California, who has long been accused of being the triggerman who shot and killed hip hop icon Tupac Shakur in a drive-by shooting in 1996. His full name was Orlando Tive Anderson, and he is also known as Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
The possible motive for the 1996 shooting – Anderson’s anger over Shakur, a rival gang member, beating him in a hotel lobby a few hours before – has new currency after the Associated Press reported that Anderson’s uncle, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, is under arrest in connection with Shakur’s murder, although the charges are not yet clear.
Over the years, Davis has admitted in a book and various interviews that he was in the Cadillac with the gunman when Shakur was killed. Anderson, who was later killed in a different shooting, denied murdering Shakur to CNN before his death.
Shakur was gunned down on September 13, 1996, “six days after an unknown gunman in a white Cadillac shot him four times in the chest at a stoplight in Las Vegas,” Brittanica reported.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Prosecutors Accused Duane Davis of Ordering Tupac Shakur’s Death After His Nephew, Orlando Anderson, Was Beaten by the Rapper in a Casino Lobby
Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, killer of Tupac Shakur in 1996, is killed in a gang-related shootout in California. He was 23.
According to the AP, which reported that Davis was arrested on September 29, 2023, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo accused Davis of being the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Shakur.
The motive? The beating a few hours earlier of Anderson, Davis’s nephew, by Shakur, AP reported.
“Mr. Davis formulated a plan to exact revenge upon Mr. Knight and Mr. Shakur” because of his nephew’s beating, DiGiacomo said in court, according to the Associated Press, referring to the owner of Death Row Records, Shakur’s music producer.
According to the Statesman, Anderson, Davis’s nephew, was “affiliated with the South Side Compton Crips, a California-based gang,” and “became the prime suspect in the eyes of Detective Tim Brennan from the Compton Police Department” in the Shakur homicide.
2. Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis Previously Implicated Orlando Anderson in Tupac Shakur’s Murder
Davis wrote a book in which he admitted being in the Cadillac’s front passenger seat, according to AP, and even said he had “slipped the gun used in the killing into the backseat.”
He said the shots came from the back, AP reported, and implicated Anderson, whose nickname was “Baby Lane,” by saying that he was in the back seat with one other person.
The Los Angeles Times, in an exhaustive investigation, previously pinpointed Shakur’s beating of Anderson as the motive for the shooting and reported that the murder stemmed from gang rivalries in Compton.
3. Tupac Shakur Was Accused of Asking Orlando Anderson, ‘You From the South?’ Before Punching Him in the Head
GettyTupac Shakur
According to the Guardian, Shakur attacked Anderson in the lobby of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a Mike Tyson fight.
“You from the South?” Shakur asked Anderson, according to The Guardian, before punching Anderson in the side of the head, “knocking him to the ground.”
Shakur record producer Suge Knight and Shakur’s entourage then kicked Anderson “in the head and body before melting away into the night,” the Guardian reported.
A few hours later, Shakur was murdered in the drive-by shooting.
4. Orlando Anderson Was the Unemployed Father of 3 Children & a Rival Gang Member in Compton
FindagraveOrlando Anderson grave
The Guardian reported that Anderson “was a fan who claimed to own all of Tupac’s records.”
Anderson was “a member of the Southside Crips,” The Los Angeles Times reported, adding that Shakur and Knight were affiliated with a rival Compton gang called the Mob Piru Bloods.
The Guardian described him as “an unemployed father of three children, raised in one of the most run-down neighbourhoods of Los Angeles.”
He snuck in the back of the Tyson fight, The Guardian reported.
However, the origins of the beating germinated earlier after a dispute in a mall. According to the Statesman, Anderson and his entourage “engaged in a violent altercation, targeting Trevon Lane, a member of Death Row Records, and forcibly taking his Death Row medallion.” Knight ran Death Row Records.
4. Orlando Anderson Was Shot to Death at a Compton Car Wash 2 Years After the Death of Tupac Shakur
GettyLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 20: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been converted to black and white.) The exterior of the ‘Tupac Shakur: Wake Me When I’m Free’ exhibition is seen at Canvas at L.A. LIVE on January 20, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
Two years after Shakur’s murder, Anderson was shot dead in a “gang shootout in Compton,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
Another man also died, the Times reported, adding that police had once named Anderson as a suspect in Shakur’s murder.
The Statesman reported that Anderson died “at the age of 23 in 1998 when he fell victim to a separate gang-related shootout.”
The Statesman reported that Anderson’s death “stemmed from a dispute over drug money with a rival gang and was unrelated to the Shakur case.”
According to MTV, Anderson was “gunned down moments after arriving at a Compton carwash shortly after 3 p.m., in the wake of what they are calling a previous monetary dispute.”
5. Orlando Anderson Was Raised by His Great-Grandmother in Compton
Keefe D Confession 👀
Keefe D on Him & Orlando Anderson Pulling Up to Tupac’s Car, Shots Fired
According to the Hip Hop Museum, Orlando Tive “Baby Lane” Anderson “was born August 13, 1974 to Harvey Lee Anderson, and Charlotte Davis. Charlotte worked 12-hour shifts as a bookkeeper, but weekends were heavily dedicated to family gatherings.”
Anderson’s parents divorced and he was raised by his great-grandmother in Compton, the museum notes, adding that his half-brother Pooh stated that he was a “a conscientious student who passed his exams at Taft High School, where Ice Cube also attended.”
Anderson had daughters Krystal, Courtney, and Sierra with high school girlfriend Rasheena Smith and had a third daughter named Ariel with a woman named Taiece Lanier, the site reported, adding that he started a rap label called Success Records before he died.
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