Following the recent arrest of a suspect in the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, Jada Pinkett Smith expressed hope that the criminal case will bring some clarity and finality to the mystery of her friend’s death.
“Now I hope we can get some answers and some closure,” Pinkett Smith wrote on her Instagram Stories last week amid news of the arrest, according to multiple media outlets. “RIP Pac” (where are the emoticons).
Pinkett Smith, 52, and Shakur met as high school students at the Baltimore School for the Arts. They became friends and remained close after Shakur’s family moved to California while he was still in high school, and even as they each achieved success in the entertainment industry throughout the 1990s.
After his death, Pinkett Smith spoke openly about their close connection and said that when they met, they had an “instant connection” and became “almost inseparable,” she recalled on a 2018 episode of “Red Table Talk.”
Pinkett Smith said that despite their “strong feelings” for each other, they remained just friends. Despite this, the closeness of their relationship made Pinkett Smith’s husband, Will Smith, jealous. In his 2022 memoir Will, the Oscar winner recalled his early years dating Pinkett Smith, when she was close to the Mommie Dearest rapper, and wrote: “I hated that I wasn’t who (Shakur) was.” was at peace. , and I was overcome with furious jealousy: I wanted Jada to look at me like that.”
During an interview with MTV News in 2019, when Smith was asked if they bonded over the media and fans or if she actually thought about Shakur, she admitted, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about Shakur. about Tupac—I think about him every single day.”
After attending a boxing match at the MGM Grand, Shakur was ambushed and shot while stopped at a traffic light on the Las Vegas Strip in September 1996. He died six days later at the age of 25. Authorities struggled for decades to figure out who killed the rap and pop culture superstar, fueling widespread speculation, conspiracy theories and a lack of closure for family and friends.
However, on Friday, Las Vegas authorities arrested and charged 60-year-old Dwayne “Keffe D” Davis with Shakur’s murder. Davis has long admitted that he was in the car that was driving next to Shakur. Authorities say Davis orchestrated the killing as an act of revenge for an escalating gang feud.
During an interview with Howard Stern in 2015, Pinkett Smith said her friendship with Shakur was strained and the pair were not speaking at the time of his death. They fell out because Pinkett Smith was too “Hollywood” and she criticized Park’s “very destructive… very scary direction” in his life and career.
“I don’t think I was as guilty as I was sad that I didn’t get a chance to tell him I loved him, but I know he knew it,” Pinkett Smith said, adding, that quarrels and failures in communication were a “constant” in their relationship. “It definitely taught me a lesson: life is too short, don’t let differences come between you and the people you love and care about.”
Pinkett Smith has continued to keep memories of her late friend fresh in recent years, sharing in June 2021, on what would have been Shakur’s 50th birthday, a poem the “Keep Ya Head Up” singer wrote and sent to her while he was incarcerated on Rikers Island after being convicted of sexual assault a year before his death. And just last month, she shared a throwback video on Instagram of her and Shakur dancing and lip-syncing to DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s 1988 hit “Parents Just Don’t Offer.” (Smith was part of that rap duo Fresh Prince.)
During an episode of “Red Table Talk,” Pinkett Smith said she was aware of fan speculation about their relationship and mused, “A lot of people are talking about my relationship with Pac and trying to figure it out.”
She then recalled the moment she heard the news of Shakur’s death while traveling to New York to see him.
“It was a huge loss in my life because he was one of the people I expected to be here,” she said. “My frustration is more of anger… because I feel like he abandoned me. And I know that’s not true and it’s a very selfish way to think about it, but I really believed that he would be here for a long time.”
Times staff writers Richard Winton and Christy Karras contributed to this report.