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The long-standing mystery surrounding Tupac Shakur's 1996 murder is resurfacing, with growing speculation pointing toward Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Recent remarks from a seasoned investigator and the involvement of a new attorney hired by the rapper's family have reignited public interest in the case.
Why is Diddy being implicated in Tupac's murder?
Sheryl McCollum, an investigator who worked on Shakur's death, expressed her belief that Combs may be connected not only to the fatal shooting but also to a 1994 robbery at Quad Studios in New York City, where Shakur was shot multiple times.
"This whole thing to me started in 1994 - the first time Tupac is shot,"McCollum explained during a recent interview with NewsNation.
At the time, Combs was at the studio with an entourage of around 40 people, none of whom were harmed during the attack.
"You ain't gotta shoot somebody five times to take their jewelry and their money," McCollum remarked, emphasizing the strange circumstances surrounding the event.
She also pointed out that Shakur was the only person targeted in the studio.
"Sean 'Puffy' Combs and his entourage of 40? Unharmed. Unthreatened. How does that make sense to anybody that one person is going to be robbed and not the other 40?"
Following the incident, Shakur himself openly accused Combs, alongside Bad Boy Records and its star artist Biggie Smalls, of being involved.
His suspicions were heightened by the lack of reaction from those present when he stumbled into the studio, wounded and bleeding.
In a 1995 interview with Vibe magazine, Shakur recalled, "Nobody approached me. I noticed that nobody would look at me... Puffy was standing back too. I knew Puffy. He knew how much stuff I had done for Biggie before he came out."
Two years later, in 1996, Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, a case that remains unsolved.
McCollum, reflecting on the circumstances of Shakur's attacks, said, "Both times that Tupac Shakur is shot, he is trapped in something. He's trapped in an elevator, and then he's trapped in a car. There is literally nowhere to run."
What further deepens the mystery, according to McCollum, is the absence of video footage from both crime scenes.
She believes that only a select few people could have known Shakur's whereabouts during both attacks, narrowing the pool of potential suspects.
"To me, this signifies somebody close to him knows his whereabouts on that day, that time and that location," she added.
Tupac's family investigating Diddy's involvement
Combs has long denied any involvement in the murder.
In 2008, the music mogul issued a statement in response to a Los Angeles Times report, stating, "The story is a lie... Neither [Biggie] nor I had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened."
Adding a new layer to the case, Shakur's family recently hired attorney Alex Spiro to investigate possible links between Combs and the rapper's death.
This move comes after Duane "Keefe D" Davis, a former gang leader, was charged in September 2023 for his role in the 1996 shooting.
Davis previously claimed that Combs offered him $1 million to orchestrate a hit on Shakur, a claim that has resurfaced in light of recent events.
The growing allegations against Combs, who was once a dominant force in the music industry, are now being scrutinized further as legal cases mount.
Beyond the murder claims, Combs is currently facing a wave of sexual abuse allegations, with multiple lawsuits filed by victims accusing him of running a large-scale criminal operation.