Police Find No Shakur Tie to Compton Slayings

Compton police Tuesday quashed at least one source of conjecture in the slaying of rap star Tupac Shakur, saying they had looked into unconfirmed reports linking Shakur’s death to a local double homicide and found no connection.

Capt. Steven Roller, a Police Department spokesman, said investigators probing the deaths of Marcus Duron Childs and Timothy Flanagan found “nothing to link this incident with anything having to do with Tupac Shakur or any activities in the state of Nevada.”

The two 21-year-old men were gunned down Friday, about three hours before Shakur died from gunshot wounds from a Sept. 7 attack in Las Vegas. The timing of the men’s deaths--and the fact that they were in Compton--had ignited speculation among people in the rap music industry and among acquaintances of Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight, the Compton-born head of Death Row Records who was driving the BMW in which Shakur was shot.

That talk, in turn, apparently was heard by police. On Monday a police source in Compton told The Times that investigators had been probing the possibility that the shootings were a payback for Shakur’s death, along with a number of other scenarios, for the past couple of days.

“We do a very thorough homicide investigation, and part of that is to look into any potential lead that may be out there,” Roller said. “But there is nothing in our investigation as of this morning to indicate that this shooting or any other shooting since Mr. Shakur got shot is related in any way to Tupac Shakur.”

Police in Las Vegas say they have received little cooperation in the case from witnesses, including Knight, who was grazed by a bullet fragment.

Speculation in the music industry and within Shakur’s circle of acquaintances about the attack has ranged from the possibility that he died as the result of a bicoastal feud with a rival rapper to the notion that he was shot by friends of a man with whom he had a reported fistfight earlier in the evening in the lobby of the MGM Grand hotel.

Some theorize that it might have been an inside job, or an attempt to destroy Death Row by killing one of its most popular acts. Others have noted that Shakur’s mother was a member of the Black Panther Party, and wondered aloud whether politics may have played a part. A Las Vegas police sergeant investigating the shooting said he has received more than one call blaming UFOs.

The theory involving the Compton slayings was that local gang members had gone gunning for Knight and Shakur as part of a long-simmering gang feud that had worsened after some acquaintances of Knight allegedly stomped a man to death at a party hosted in February by Death Row; the double homicide on North Burris Avenue in Compton was rumored to have been retaliation.

The theory was floated within the music industry almost from the moment of the attack, and gained momentum after Flanagan and Childs were shot. On Tuesday, Childs’ aunt said she, too, had heard the stories and didn’t know what to think.

“I know my nephew wasn’t affiliated with any gang. I doubt he knew those people either--he wasn’t into any particular rap artist or anything,” said Wanda Childs.

“But I’ve been hearing those rumors since Day One, and who knows what’s possible in the world of rap and all that? All I know is my nephew was quiet and didn’t mess with anybody. He fixed old cars, basically, has never been involved in a gang and was getting ready to have a baby next month.”

Childs said that she had no idea why anyone would want to kill her nephew, and that she was horrified at the swirl of sensationalism that had touched his death.

“It just don’t make no sense,” she said. “I just don’t want no negativism connected with my nephew. He never messed with nobody. He’s dead, and that’s as final as you can get.”

Meanwhile, Death Row Records announced that a memorial service that had been planned for Thursday at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre has been canceled. “Overwhelming demand for attendance by fans and well-wishers” has made it difficult to find a venue large enough to accommodate the crowds, a spokesman for the label said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.