Suge Knight is speaking out from prison, sharing new details about Tupac Shakur’s final days and the emotional decision Afeni Shakur allegedly made as her son fought to stay alive.
In a new interview with PEOPLE, Knight spoke about what really keeps him up at night all these years later. What haunts him most is what he says happened in the hospital room after the shooting, the moment Tupac allegedly asked his mother to help him die.
Back in 1996, Knight and Tupac were sitting at a red light in Las Vegas when a car pulled up and opened fire. Knight says he was behind the wheel, bleeding from his head. Tupac sat beside him, hit multiple times in the chest, arm, and thigh.
Despite the chaos, Knight says he made a hard turn and tried to drive them to safety, but the car barely made it a few blocks. Two police officers nearby heard the gunfire and jumped into action. An ambulance rushed them both to the University Medical Center.
Knight walked out with stitches. Tupac was listed in critical condition. But when Knight visited him, the rapper was still conscious, still talking, still himself. He says Tupac looked up and asked for a blunt or two. He remembers joking with him, even laughing, saying, “You going to smoke in the hospital?” Tupac, according to Knight, didn’t care. He also allegedly asked for Hennessy.
But as the night wore on, the energy shifted. The fight at the MGM, the weight of another prison sentence, and the pain started to break him down. Knight says Tupac told him directly, “Kill me. Shoot me.”
Tupac didn’t want to go back to prison. Knight says he feared that more than dying. But he also believed taking his own life would keep him out of heaven, so he looked to his mother. Knight says he was there when Tupac asked Afeni to help him let go. According to him, she gave her son pills and told the doctors not to intervene again if he slipped. Staff allegedly brought him back once,” but Knight claims, “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.’”
Doctors eventually placed Tupac in a coma and put him on a respirator. He died on September 13, 1996, just after 4 p.m. Knight says it was Afeni’s love that allowed her to make the most painful call of her life.
So far, Tupac’s family has not commented on Knight’s version of events. But from his prison cell, Knight seems certain of what happened and why it still hurts.
