WEST HOLLYWOOD : Man Jailed in Theft of Rap Cassette, Gunplay at Store

An apparent fan of jailed rapper Tupac Shakur allegedly brandished a gun in a West Hollywood record store and shoplifted a copy of one of the artist’s cassettes, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Thursday.

Andre Ferguson, 27, was booked for firearms violations and petty theft after the incident at the West Hollywood Tower Records store on Sunset Boulevard, said Sgt. Mike Parker.

Ferguson allegedly took the tape “2PAC” from the store Wednesday night, Parker said. “He had been seen in the store horse-playing with his friends and pointing a handgun at them,” Parker said. “He then put the gun away, grabbed the cassette, unwrapped it and . . . left without paying for it.”

Deputies said they stopped a car near the store, seized a loaded handgun and the stolen tape and arrested Ferguson. The driver of the car was also arrested.

Shakur, 23, is jailed on New York’s Rikers Island, serving two years on a sex-abuse charge.

The rapper was shot five times shortly before being jailed. He has faced criminal charges four other times in the past two years, including weapons charges in Los Angeles, where a warrant for his arrest is outstanding.