Eighteen years after a Las Vegas cop pulled a dying Tupac Shakur from the passenger seat of the car the rapper had been shot in, now-retired Chris Carroll is telling his story. In an extensive interview with VegasSeven.com, Carroll says he heard the rapper's last words: He asked a bleeding Tupac, "Who shot you? What happened? Who did it?" But Shakur wouldn't answer. And then, "He looked at me and he took a breath to get the words out, and he opened his mouth, and I thought I was actually going to get some cooperation," Carroll says. "And then the words came out: 'F--- you.'"
Shakur then lost consciousness and was taken to the hospital, where he slipped into a coma and died, and Carroll says the officer who rode in the ambulance says Tupac never said another word. He's never told his story before, Carroll explains, because "I didn’t want Tupac to be a martyr or hero because he told the cops 'F--- you.'" But now, "well, he’s a martyr anyway; he’s viewed as a hero anyway. My story, at this point, isn’t going to change any of that." And as for the conspiracy theory that Suge Knight, who was driving the car, actually arranged for the hit, Carroll dismisses it: "When we were at the scene, and he was yelling at Tupac, it was clear he had legitimate concern for him. It wasn’t acting; you could see it was the heat of the moment. This is not the guy who had him killed." (More Tupac Shakur stories.)