Suge Knight Recalls Afeni Shakur’s Final Message to Doctors Treating 2Pac After 1996 Shooting: ‘Let Him Go’

Suge Knight recalled his final moments by 2Pac’s side in September 1996 while chatting from behind bars with People in a story published Tuesday (July 1).

The Death Row honcho’s life was forever changed the night his BMW was peppered with shots at the intersection of East Flamingo and Koval Lane in Las Vegas while riding with 2Pac on Sept. 7 following a Mike Tyson boxing fight at the MGM Grand.

“I got out and tried to tell the officers what happened while I was bleeding everywhere,” Knight remembered of the chaotic scene. “Also, I then was getting 2Pac out the car, even when the door was open. I had to go over there bleeding everywhere, take the seat belt off him. When we get into the ambulance, Pac is funny as f—k. He cracking jokes. I’m cracking jokes. Pac’s like, ‘S—t, when we heal up, you know what we doing.'”

Pac underwent multiple emergency surgeries, including a lung removal, to combat his internal bleeding. Knight claimed that Pac, floating in and out of consciousness, wanted to be killed before ever going back to jail because of his role in the casino brawl that took place hours earlier.

Suge Knight alleged that the rapper had pleaded with mom Afeni Shakur about ending his life, and Knight claims that Afeni gave him pills to assist in expediting that process.

“The doctors came in and brought him back. And his mom said, ‘Don’t ever do that again. If he’s having complications, don’t touch him,” Knight claimed of Afeni’s message to doctors after seeing enough of her baby fighting for his life. “Don’t bring him back. Let him go.'”

2Pac passed away shortly after 4 p.m. PT on Sept. 13, 1996. The legendary rapper was quickly cremated, which his mother was a proponent of, but Knight stated that Pac had different plans for his funeral.

“[2Pac] told me, ‘When I go, I want every rapper at my funeral to grab the mic. I want them to kiss me head to toe. Just like in ‘Life Goes On.’ He didn’t want to be cremated,” he claimed. Knight said he ended up paying an affiliate $1 million in cash for Pac’s cremation.

Afeni Shakur passed away at 69 years old on May 2, 2016. At the time, the Marin County Sheriff’s Office reported that she had suffered possible cardiac arrest.

Twenty-seven years after 2Pac’s murder, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in September 2023 and is facing a murder charge. He remains in jail awaiting trial, which is slated to begin in February 2026.