Tupac (left) and Notorious B.I.G.
Getty, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Dexter Isaac, who is serving life in prison for other crimes, said Wednesday – the eve of what would have been Shakur's 40th birthday – that he was one of the men who ambushed Shakur on Nov. 30, 1994, at Manhattan's Quad Studios, shooting him five times.
Isaac claims he was paid $2,500 for the hit by James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, a former music mogul who recently claimed that Isaac is working with the government to pursue a drug case against him.
"I want to apologize to [Shakur's] family and for the mistake I did for that sucker [Jimmy Henchman]," Isaac told AllHipHop.com from prison. "I am trying to clean it up to give [Tupac and B.I.G.'s] mothers some closure."
Shakur survived the shooting, but it led to a bitter East Coast-West Coast hip-hop feud that eventually led to Shakur's murder in September 1996 and the death of fellow rapper Notorious B.I.G. in March 1997. Those murders remain unsolved.
Isaac denies cooperating with the government in any investigation against Henchman, and says he is coming forward now in part to prove Henchman's involvement in the 1994 shooting.
On Thursday, Paul Browne, an N.Y.P.D. spokesman, told The Associated Press that the department is investigating Isaac's report and would seek an interview him if they determined it was legitimate.
