Fatally hit Tupac was more concerned for Suge Knight after 1996 shooting: 'You the one they shot in the head!'
Just moments before slipping into a coma, a fatally injured Tupac Shakur thought his pal Suge Knight was the one badly injured after being gunned down, according to police files that were recently revealed after 24 years.
“You the one they shot in the head. You shot in the head," Tupac told Suge right after the fateful drive-by shooting.
Speaking to the police at the time, Suge revealed how Tupac was unaware that he had sustained life-threatening injuries from the shooting. Instead, he was concerned for the Death Row Records boss' condition.
According to Suge, he jumped on top of the rapper during the attack in a bid to protect him, but realized he was already badly injured and was determined to get him to hospital. However, being injured himself, Suge drove in the wrong direction and smashed into a divider at a traffic intersection moments later, per police files.
Tupac subsequently slipped into a coma, and would never wake up again. Three days after the tragedy, Suge detailed the events of the shooting to Las Vegas police.
Now, the transcript of the interview has been obtained by The Sun as part of a trove of never before released documents. Suge recounted the final moments of Tupac as the pair cruised along Las Vegas Boulevard on September 7,1996. Blaring rap music along the boulevard, they stopped at a red light.
“We was having conversation," Suge told the authorities. "We heard some gunshots. We looked to the right of us. Tupac was like tryin’ to get to the back seat."
“I grabbed him and pulled him down. It was about 15 gunshots. They hit my head. I grabbed him pulled him down," he continued.
According to the transcript, Suge insisted that neither he nor Tupac knew the shooters or did anything to rile them up. “Everything happened so fast," he told the police, but noted the attack was “too long."
“I grabbed him pulled him down and topped him," he repeated. “I thought I got shot in my head, which I did.”
And as he fell out of the vehicle, Suge “waved at officers and cabs and everybody told me to get down.”
He then admitted he "almost got shot a second time" when he was "tryin' to find the hospital" and "got out and flagged down the officer and ambulance and then [redacted] the barrel of a gun."
“All I know I had blood gushin’ on my head," he added.
Officers then asked the rap mogul if he was aware he was "driving away" from all the hospitals. "No, Sir," he replied, before expressing his anger at Tupac's bodyguards who were following them in a black Lexus during the incident.
Police then asked Suge what the security team, which included the megastar's cousin and brother, did to save them. “Your guess is as good as mine," he replied. "The guy gets paid a lot of money to be protection. I don’t understand it to this day."
"This is one of the reasons Tupac and myself was more comfortable because we knew we had Tupac’s bodyguards behind this. That is the idea for them," he added.
Suge then refuted reports that Tupac himself was carrying a gun in the front seat. “I don’t allow the artist people around me to carry weapons," he said.