Tupac Shakur to be honored with a street name in California
Late hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur will have a street in Oakland renamed after him, following an 'unanimous vote by the city council' on Tuesday.
The rapper, who first moved to the Bay Area as a teenager, got his first break in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground and credited his time in Marin City as the 'location where he got his game,' according to legislation, obtained by NBC.
'A stretch of MacArthur Boulevard by Lake Merritt where Shakur once lived will keep its existing name, but also receive the additional, honorary name of Tupac Shakur Way,' according to the publication.
The Tupac Shakur Foundation will be covering the costs for 'commemorative plaques and signs signaling the change.'
He was selected to 'remind people' of his 'contributions to Oakland and celebrate art and culture as a catalyst for societal change.'
In memory: Late hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur will have a street in Oakland renamed after him, following an 'unanimous vote by the city council' on Tuesday (seen in 1994)
Over the years, the city has also paid homage to other icons with street names for record producer Too Short and Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton.
Tupac died of of gunshot wounds suffered in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting in 1996, at just 25, after paramedics rushed him to the ICU at University Medical Center.
He was 'shot him four times in the chest at a stoplight' by an 'unknown gunman in a white Cadillac,' according to Britannica.
In an attempt to save his life, he was placed on life support and put under an induced coma.
Nearly 30 years later, the homicide case remains unsolved.
In 2021, the cop, Chris Carroll, who held Tupac as he took his final unaided breath revealed he was still harassed by conspiracy theorists claiming the rapper is alive.
The retired Las Vegas police officer told DailyMailTV he still regularly receives messages on social media and even through the Las Vegas Metro Police Department demanding he 'come clean' about a crackpot theory the iconic rapper secretly escaped that night.
Some extremists even write to suggest that Carroll played a role in the death of the star, famous for hits like California Love and Ghetto Gospel.
Paying homage: The rapper, who first moved to the Bay Area as a teenager, got his first break in 1991 as a member of the group Digital Underground and credited his time in Marin City as the 'location where he got his game,' according to legislation, obtained by NBC; seen in 1994
'A stretch of MacArthur Boulevard by Lake Merritt where Shakur once lived will keep its existing name, but also receive the additional, honorary name of Tupac Shakur Way,' according to the publication (seen in 1994)
No matter how many times he repeats his same story and factual description of holding lifeless Tupac in his arms after the gang shooting, people still refuse to believe him.
Carroll said he takes much of the interaction with good humor, but remains 'a little unsettled' at suggestions that he would not aid a gunshot wound victim.
On the 25th anniversary of Tupac's murder, he voiced his bewilderment and frustration at hardcore fans not believing his account of the night of September 7, 1996.
Carroll went on to recall holding a gun shot-ridden Tupac as he fought to take his last few breaths, before 'gargling, choking, falling unconscious and going limp' on the sidewalk of Las Vegas Boulevard.
Carroll remains 'in no doubt Tupac was essentially dead because the volume of blood loss and damage to his vital organs was terminal.'
'People want to hear about complex stories of cover ups and conspiracies. That is not the case - sadly some people die in very straightforward circumstances even if they are famous,' he said.
Never forgotten: The Tupac Shakur Foundation will be covering the costs for 'commemorative plaques and signs signaling the change' (seen in 1993)
In the exclusive interview, Carroll admitted: 'I never thought I would be talking about this a week after that night, let alone 25 years. Now I realize it is never going away. It is what it is and is never going to change.
'It frustrates me when I hear misinformation, lies and conspiracies and it is one of reasons I came forward in the first place after I retired to set the record straight.
'Thankfully the vast majority of people believe the truth, but the ones who don't seem to speak the loudest and they never stop talking.'
Carroll said he is staggered at the online posts and social media threads alleging various far-fetched roles by him in the case. Some cite him as a middle man for Tupac's escape and others an accomplice to his murder.
'It is just comical to say I killed him,' Carroll said. 'It is all on record how many bullets damaged key organs and when I got to him he was already pretty much passing away.
'Technically he did not officially pass until later, but that was only thanks to the skill of the trauma team who kept his heart beating, and then life support machines.
'To those others who believe I helped smuggle him to Cuba or Costa Rica, that is false too.
'He had large caliber wounds to his torso and vital organs. While I was holding him he stopped breathing, and he never regained consciousness – he was not going anywhere in that state other than the hospital.'
Jokingly he added: 'Maybe had he hit me up with a deal for a millions of dollars and a plan to smuggle him when he was alive, without the shooting, I may have taken him up on it.'
Back in 1996, then-sergeant Carroll was the first officer on the scene in the wake of Tupac and Suge's BMW crashing into the center of Las Vegas Boulevard shortly before midnight.
Seconds earlier their vehicle had been blasted with a volley of bullets from a semi-automatic weapon from men in a white Cadillac car.
Carroll approached the shot up BMW, where he noticed Tupac was slumped but moving.
After opening the passenger door, Tupac, blood pouring from four gunshot wounds, flopped out onto his left arm.
The rapper grimaced with pain, gasping for breath and slipped out of consciousness, Carroll said.
Carroll asked him who'd shot him, only for the rapper 'to take as deep as breath as possible and say, 'F*** you'.'
Source: Daily Mail
