Tupac Shakur’s suspected murderer Orlando Anderson was in a relationship with Rasheena Smith and the duo had children together. Details about his love life and kids explored.
Orlando Anderson is a deceased gang member from Los Angeles, California, who has long been accused of being the triggerman who shot and killed hip hop icon Tupac Shakur in a drive-by shooting in 1996. His full name was Orlando Tive Anderson, and he is also known as Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
The possible motive for the 1996 shooting – Anderson’s anger over Shakur, a rival gang member, beating him in a hotel lobby a few hours before – has new currency after the Associated Press reported that Anderson’s uncle, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, is under arrest in connection with Shakur’s murder, although the charges are not yet clear.
Over the years, Davis has admitted in a book and various interviews that he was in the Cadillac with the gunman when Shakur was killed. Anderson, who was later killed in a different shooting, denied murdering Shakur to CNN before his death.
Shakur was gunned down on September 13, 1996, “six days after an unknown gunman in a white Cadillac shot him four times in the chest at a stoplight in Las Vegas,” Brittanica reported.
But Orlando also died shortly after 2pac’s passing but before his death, he was a father as he was in a serious relationship.
Here’s what we know about Orlando Anderson’s love life, family, and kids.
Who was Orlando Anderson’s wife or girlfriend?
Orlando Anderson was never legally or officially married and hence he had no wife or spouse. However, he was in a serious relationship with a woman named Rasheena Smith.
Anderson and Smith met during high school days as they both attended Taft High School in California and proceeded to Dominguez High School for their senior year and got their diploma. He was considered a good student who had good grades.
Orlando and Rasheena dated for years and even lived together in her apartment in Lakewood, just south-east of Compton.
Later, Orlando’s partner went on to study nursing.
Orlando was also passionate about sports and on 7 September, he drove to Las Vegas with Rasheena in a borrowed car to watch the Tyson fight, checking into the Excalibur Hotel just across the street from the MGM Grand. This was the same event that he reportedly ended up shooting Tupac.
While Orlando and Smith were still dating, he was also juggling another relationship, with a girl named Taiece Lanier.
How many children did Orlando Anderson have?
Before Orlando Anderson was killed, he was reportedly a father of four. He had four children; all girls.
The known names of his kids are Krystal, Courtney and Ariel.
He welcomed his first three children with his high school girlfriend, Rasheena.
His last daughter was between him and his other partner, Taiece.
As of today, nothing is known of Orlando Anderson’s children as they live private lives.
What is known about Orlando Anderson’s family?
Orlando’s had been a secure childhood. His father, Harvey Lee Anderson, split with his mother, Charlotte Davis, but Orlando had grown up in his great-grandmother Utah’s house on South Burris Road, surrounded by aunts, uncles and grandparents. The lampposts on South Burris where Orlando grew up are all spray-painted with the letters ‘SS’: South Side. A stop sign has been redesigned in blue aerosol paint to read: ‘Can’t STOP the SSC’. This is South Side Crip territory.
It was a typical South Central family history, in many ways. Utah (Lane’s grandmother) , born in Texas just before the outbreak of the First World War, had left the South in the great African-American migration northwards. South Central boomed briefly during the Second World War as LA’s munitions industries soaked up labour, but the war ended and South Central turned into a massively overpopulated slum.
Utah moved to Compton in the Fifties, when it was an affluent middle-class neighbourhood, only to watch property values crash as whites fled. Orlando’s mother Charlotte worked 12-hour shifts as a bookkeeper to support her children, but on most weekends there would be some large family gathering that brought everyone together to play sports and have a big meal.
Orlando had a close relationship with his half-brother Pooh, and together they later founded a record company called Success Records.