Ignore That Viral Selfie, Tupac Is Really Dead - First Cop On The Scene

It was a picture which seemed to give hope to his fans that Tupac Shakur was not dead and was living a secret life 20 years after he was shot in Las Vegas.

But a 'selfie' of the rapper - which emerged as part of a video montage and has since gone viral - is being dismissed out of hand by the first police officer on the scene of the shooting, who tells DailyMail.com he knows Tupac is dead.
Chris Carroll, who is now retired, witnessed the 25-year-old, bleeding heavily, slip into unconsciousness after saying his last words to the cop: 'F* you.'

Shakur was declared six days later without ever regaining consciousness and Carroll tells DailyMail.com he knew instantly that there was no hope.

The shooting of the rapper, on 7 September 1996, has been surrounded by conspiracy theories ever since.

They include claims that Marion 'Suge' Knight, who was beside Shakur in the car when he was shot, had ordered the assassination - and that Carroll was involved, or even that he helped Shakur flee to a new life by using a look-a-like corpse to fake his death.

The picture seemed to fuel the claim that Tupac had survived in secret.
But Caroll, 51, says that is untrue, and also says he does not believe Knight ordered the hit, while warning that the most notorious of the rap murders may never be solved.

'Tupac is dead. I saw him lose consciousness and lose his life 20 years ago,' he said.
'I still find it astonishing that fans and people believe that Tupac is alive.

'This new video does nothing to change my mind. There are lookalikes all over the world and this may be another one or a hoax.'

Carroll was on routine patrol on his cycle when he heard a radio alert about shots fired into a BMW from a white Cadillac a mile from where he was.

He was in fact just yards away as the BMW - driven by Knight - crashed into a divider at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard, and Harmon and Carroll were on the scene instantly.

Shakur had been shot four times and Knight had sped away from the scene, followed by other cars in his entourage.

'There were about five cars in the entourage and as they began getting out of the cars I knew these were not normal citizens,' he told DailyMail.com.

'So as they got out I had my gun drawn, so I told them all to get down and stay back. They all looked edgy, and I was concerned that may be a threat or could even just run away.

'But then in the BMW through the passenger window I saw a silhouette of a guy, who was not moving.

'My immediate concern was that he could be armed and perhaps wanting to attack me or was the shooter. In the middle of this chaos was Suge, who you cannot miss, as he is this huge figure, very tall, wide and looking to come towards me.