Once Upon A Time in Compton
Page 20
Based on experience, Tim and Bob knew how to stop a gang war. They’d been successful doing so in the past. Their method was simple: strike hard with multi-gang search and arrest warrants, bring the gang members in, interview them one-by-one, and try to get them to roll on one another. The search warrants alone were often enough to shake them up. Cops arriving early in the morning waking them up, doors being knocked down, weapons seized. It sent a big message to the gangs involved and would usually get them to pull back on the violence in the streets. Sometimes they stopped altogether. Entire gangs had nearly been taken down in the past using these techniques.
***
When they came in to work, Sergeant Baker told them he’d been contacted by one of his reliable informants saying Keefe D’s nephew had shot Tupac. Baker had excellent informants. With the help of his informants, he’d taken down some of the biggest drug dealers in Los Angeles while working on the D.E.A. task force. If he was bringing them something from one of his informants, Tim and Bob knew it was good.
Baker told them that a South Side Crip named Big Neal was going around telling people that the South Side had gotten money from the east coast and were looking to purchase guns. This was good intel because Tim and Bob had personally taken down the weapon and ammunition stashes at the Glencoe duplex and the house on Burris. SSCC been slowed down, but now that they had an influx of money, they would be gearing up again for the war at hand.
There was a funeral in Compton this day. A South Side Crip named Ronnie Beverly had been murdered just before the Tupac shooting. Tim and Bob knew how gang funerals went down. Emotions ran high among those grieving and it wasn’t uncommon for things to culminate with rivals being shot. Retaliatory drive-bys often happened on funeral days. There was never a good time for a funeral, but this was the worst.
Tim and Bob wouldn’t be able to monitor the service like they usually did, nor would they have time to cruise the streets afterwards so the gangs involved would see their presence and fall back.
***
It didn’t take long for another shooting to happen.
At 12:15 p.m., two Pirus were shot and killed in front of an Elm Lane Piru/MOB Piru hangout at 110 North Burris. An innocent bystander was also shot, but it wasn’t fatal. The suspects were believed to be either South Side Crips or their associates the Chester Street Crips. One of the suspects matched the description of a Chester Street Crip named Deleon Giles, aka “Bam.” To this day, Tim and Bob believe Giles was responsible for this double murder, but none of the witnesses were able to identify him. They were later able to convict him for the murder of a five-year-old he shot during an unrelated drive-by.
***
The shootings had gotten way out of control. Chief Taylor was doing his best to bring in more manpower, but something needed to be done quickly.
With all the information Tim and Bob had been receiving, what they were putting together was going to be a large-scale operation that would take some time; time they didn’t have.
More blood would fill the streets of Compton before they were done. Tim and Bob couldn’t see how things could get any worse.
Then they did.
***
R.I.P. TUPAC SHAKUR
At 4:03 p.m. PDT, Tupac Amaru Shakur died at University Medical Center in Las Vegas from internal hemorrhaging that his doctors were unable to stop. His mother, Afeni Shakur, made the call for doctors to stop trying to revive him. Tupac was just twenty-five years old.
It was six days after he and Suge had been shot at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. The world reacted with shock at the loss.
In Compton, the reaction was explosive as more violence was about to kick off.
***
Tim and Bob received yet another call from L.A.S.D. Gang Detective Paul Fournier. His reliable informant said two vehicles - a black Chevrolet Astro van and a red Chevrolet Berretta - were en route to Compton. Both cars contained Bloods coming for South Side Crips.
This same day, gang unit detective Ray Richardson had been able to get Orlando Anderson positively identified as the shooter in the drive-by at 713 N. Bradfield Avenue that had taken place three days prior, on September 10th.
All the Piru sets in the city were uniting, some twenty or more. Pirus from Fruit Town, Elm Lane, Cedar Block, Lueders Park, and MOB Pirus were seen gathering at Lueders Park and at the home of Cynthia Nunn and Charles Edwards, aka Charlie P.
At 10:25 p.m., the next drive-by happened at 802 S. Ward, in an area claimed by the South Side Crips. SSCC members Tyrone Lipscomb and David McKullin were shot, but both men survived.
.45 caliber casings were recovered from the scene.
***
DAY EIGHT: Saturday, September 14, 1996
The next shooting took place just ten minutes after midnight at 121 N. Chester Street, a known Chester Street Crip hangout. Mitchell Lewis, Apryle Murphy, and Fredrick Boykin were shot numerous times, but each lived. The shooters were three Pirus on foot.
.45 caliber casings were recovered from the scene.
Tim and Bob were exhausted, operating off very little sleep. Gang members were being uncooperative. The two men’s stress levels were sky high, but the pressure somehow fueled them. It was as if they were becoming addicted to the stress, which was crazy.
It was a lot to put themselves through, but in their own way, Tim and Bob were hooked on the madness that was happening around them.
***
DAY NINE: Sunday, September 15, 1996
A day without shootings. Tim and Bob were able to catch up on paperwork and do necessary follow ups. They needed a break from the chaos, even if it was just for a day.
***
DAY TEN: Monday, September 16, 1996
Tim and L.A.S.D. gang detectives, Paul Fournier and Mike Caouette drove to Las Vegas to meet with the Homicide Unit and exchange information. After speaking with detectives, Brent Becker and Mike Franks over the phone after the shooting, Tim got a chance to meet them in person, along with their boss, Sergeant Kevin Manning.
The press was everywhere, having descended upon the city in the wake of Tupac’s death to mine stories about what happened. The murder of the controversial hip-hop superstar proved rich fodder for media outlets all over the world. The detectives met at a secret location at a mini-mall, away from prying eyes.
The meeting went very well. Tim was finally able to review the videotape of Orlando Anderson being beaten at the MGM Grand. He identified Tupac, Suge Knight, Orlando Anderson, several of Suge’s bodyguards, Alton “Buntry" McDonald, Trevon Lane, and Tupac’s bodyguard, Frank Alexander.
Tim had brought photos of South Side Crips he believed were involved in the shooting. He gave them to the Vegas detectives. He had also brought several .40 caliber bullets from the ammunition stash he and Bob recovered from the duplex on Glencoe. They were the same caliber as the bullets used to shoot Tupac and Suge, although they were a different brand. Tim knew, from his and Bob’s experience with gangs over the years, that it was common to mix different brands of bullets. The Vegas detectives, however, didn’t think the .40 caliber bullets were significant.
Tim also laid out for them the relationship the South Side Crips had to Las Vegas, including the address at 2109 Haveling Street. This was a detail they were unaware of, which Tim found surprising. In fact, Becker and Franks, who were in Homicide, weren’t even working closely with their own gang unit. No one from the Vegas P.D. gang division was even at the meeting.
Tim didn’t press the why of this, as it wasn’t unusual for gang units and homicide units within a police force to have internal conflicts, mostly because gang homicides had to be treated differently than traditional homicides. Gang murders required a wealth of backstory, from historical knowledge of the gang itself, who the players were within their sets, their mentality, and their rivalries, to many other things. Most homicide detectives didn’t have enough working knowledge to investigate these types of cases without the help of gang officers.
/> Tim got the impression the Vegas detectives were tired of the press. Someone had apparently been leaking details about the case, as the media had almost every piece of information, from crime scene pictures to an autopsy photo of Tupac that was purchased by the National Enquirer.
***
After their meeting with the homicide unit, Tim and the L.A.S.D. detectives met with the Las Vegas Metro gang unit at one of their offices. Tim shared the same information with them about the South Side Crips that he’d shared with the Vegas homicide detectives. He told them about the house on Haveling and that there were SSCC members living in their city. The Metro gang unit was unaware of this, and, at that time, they had nothing on their end to offer to the investigation.
They asked Tim about a Black man named Kevin Hackie. Hackie had created a scene at University Medical Center trying to get in to see Tupac. When he was refused, Hackie had become angry and told hospital staff he was with the F.B.I., then flashed a badge saying he was a Compton police officer. The Metro gang investigators wanted to file a complaint about him.
“He lied to you,” Tim said. “He’s not Compton P.D.”
Hackie, who’d worked at Death Row as a bodyguard for Tupac, was a police officer for the Compton school district. Hackie was allegedly also an F.B.I. informant during the time he was Tupac’s bodyguard[27], so perhaps, in his eyes, that was the same as being with the F.B.I. He was a key source upon whom L.A.P.D. Detective Russell Poole based the information that appeared in journalist Randall Sullivan’s book LAbyrinth, which chronicled Poole’s investigations of Tupac and Biggie’s murders.
After her son's death, Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace filed a multi-million dollar civil suit against the City of Los Angeles and the L.A.P.D. During the trial, Hackie denied making statements attributed to him in a pre-trial deposition taken by Wallace’s attorneys. At the trial, he claimed to be in fear of his life, told a reporter he was taking medication that affected his memory, then contradicted this admission during court testimony, saying he didn’t suffer from memory issues at all.[28]
The Vegas gang investigators asked Tim about a man named James Green. Unlike Hackie, Green was a police officer for the Compton P.D. He also worked security for Death Row Records under Reggie Wright, Jr. Green was one of several Compton police officers who had worked for Death Row over the years. Compton police chief Hourie Taylor had already made it clear to officers that no one was to work for Death Row off duty. There was even a policy in place that an off-duty work permit had to be obtained and signed by Chief Hourie before an officer could get an off-duty job. Taylor had made the “no Death Row” off-duty work mandate because he knew what it was doing to the department’s reputation. He knew who worked for Suge: MOB Piru, Lueders Park Piru. He was also aware of the in-house turmoil at the label and the suspected murders associated with Suge and his entourage. To have Compton police officers working alongside known gang members was not a good look. It was the worst of looks. It eroded public trust, which was something Chief Taylor was very careful about protecting and upholding.
Having a “no Death Row” mandate in place stopped most Compton officers, but not James Green. On the night of the Tyson-Seldon fight when Tupac and Suge were shot, James Green was in Las Vegas working security for Death Row. He’d told Chief Taylor he had a death in the family and needed three days of bereavement leave to spend time with them. Those three days of bereavement were used to moonlight for the record label he’d been explicitly told not to work for.
When an officer received bereavement time, the city paid that officer’s full salary for the three days given, so Green was getting paid by Death Row and the city of Compton. He was eventually caught and disciplined for lying. Everyone thought he was going to be fired, but Chief Taylor had always been a good man with a big heart. Green’s father had worked for the Compton P.D. for many years. Taylor gave James Green another chance. It would be decision that would come back to haunt Taylor years later.
Green never came forward and said what he saw or knew the night Tupac was shot, but Tim and Bob’s informants said Green was at Club 662 after the shooting, which, if true, made it likely he heard what was being discussed.
***
DAY ELEVEN: Tuesday, September 17, 1996
Tim returned from Vegas unimpressed with the way the detectives there were conducting the investigation. It almost felt like they were trying to quiet the whole thing. Tupac and Suge were huge presences in the music industry, which meant this case wasn’t going away so easily, but it seemed like Vegas P.D. was hoping for that very thing.
Las Vegas was a major tourist city and, at the time, had been revamping its image from a place known for drinking and gambling to a town where the whole family could have a fun and exciting vacation. The pyramid-shaped Luxor Hotel had opened three years earlier, the Paris Las Vegas, which would have a 541-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower, had been announced the year before, and the New York-New York Hotel and Casino, complete with towers shaped like the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, and replicas of the Statue of Liberty and other New York City landmarks was set to open in less than four months. The last thing the city wanted was to be known for drive-by shootings between Bloods and Crips, or to be the setting for a high-profile gang-related criminal trial involving the murder of a controversial hip-hop superstar.
People travelled to Las Vegas in droves year-round and spent tremendous amounts of money while there. It was imperative they felt it was a safe place to be.
***
On Day Eleven, no shootings happened in Compton. It was a welcome respite.
Like the Ice Cube song, it was a good day.
***
DAY TWELVE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996
Orlando Anderson’s residence, 1409 S. Burris, had been under surveillance by undercover officers when they observed a U-Haul truck at the house. Several people were moving property onto the truck and away from the location. Why was Anderson suddenly moving now? He was a suspect in the Elbert Webb murder five months earlier, but that didn’t prompt him to move. But here it was, just five days after Tupac had died and suddenly he was breaking out.
The undercover officers saw Anderson at the house in a full-size black Chevy Blazer, the same kind of vehicle witnesses said was used in the Webb murder.
The undercover officers followed Anderson as he left the house, but eventually lost him during a high-speed chase.
This, added with all the other evidence, further pointed to him as the prime suspect in Tupac’s murder.
***
Tim and Bob interviewed a witness who was a Nutty Blocc Crip with ties to the South Side Crips. He’d originally been interviewed for the investigation into the murder of Elbert Webb. The witness said the day after Tupac and Suge were shot, he talked to Orlando Anderson and Deandre Smith, who had driven to their neighborhood in a white Cadillac. The witness also said he saw them with a .40 caliber Glock pistol.
“I shot that fool!” the witness said Anderson gloated, referring to Tupac.
The witness was a well-known Crip, so he would never testify to any of this, but what stood out to Tim and Bob about what he’d shared was that, at the time they interviewed him, the type and caliber of gun used in the shooting weren’t known yet, as Vegas P.D. never released this information.
***
DAY THIRTEEN: Thursday, September 19, 1996
L.A.S.D. detective, Paul Fournier called Tim and Bob saying that he had been contacted by an informant who had seen Orlando Anderson with a .40 caliber Glock pistol. Tim and Bob confirmed with Fournier that his informant was not their witness, the Nutty Blocc Crip they’d just interviewed the day before. It wasn’t.
Fournier had also received information that the South Side Crips had access to about thirty guns, which were hidden in an apartment in Atlantic Drive Crips territory, just east of the area claimed by the South Side Crips. An informant had also told him that several AK-47’s had just been delivered in the MOB Piru area.
***
DAY FOURTEEN: Friday, September 20, 1996
A witness to the murder of Elbert Webb positively identified Orlando Anderson from a photo line-up. The witness also identified the MAC-11 assault pistol Tim and Bob had recovered from the house at 1405 S. Burris as the same type of gun Anderson had used during the Webb murder.
***
In the days following the Tupac shooting, there were three homicides and eleven attempted murders in Compton and the gang unit recovered large caches of weapons and ammunition. Gang wars of this level didn’t just happen. They happened because significant actions or events set them off. From the evidence collected, information that had been verified, witness accounts, and criminal dots that could be directly connected, the South Side Crips had been responsible for the murder of Tupac.
More importantly, at least in Compton, one of hip-hop’s biggest CEO’s, Suge Knight, was seen as a symbol of the Pirus. Shooting at him was an act of epic disrespect. It was seen as an attack upon all Compton Pirus.
Disrespect one, you disrespect all.
This was what had ignited the war.
***
Sergeant Baker, who had called several rental car agencies in the area to find out if a white Cadillac had been rented prior to the Tupac/Suge shooting, found a possible lead at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
By this point, Tim and Bob were inundated with shootings. There was no way they could investigate every lead by themselves.
They located a white Cadillac that had been rented out the weekend of the shooting in Vegas and returned the following Monday. They photographed the vehicle. The car had been rented to a man who lived on Aprilia Street in an area claimed by the Nutty Blocc Crips, allies of the South Side Crips.