The story behind final photo of Tupac Shakur

Nearly 30 years after snapping what became one of the most famous photographs in hip-hop history, the man behind the last known image of Tupac Shakur has been called to testify in the rapper’s murder trial in Las Vegas.

Leonard Jefferson took the photograph on Sept. 7, 1996, just minutes before Shakur was shot near the Las Vegas Strip.

“I just stared at it for a little while, like, wow, I just took this picture and now he’s dead,” Jefferson told KTLA.

Jefferson said he was stopped at a red light that night when he noticed a black BMW beside him. Inside were Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.

“I looked up and I saw it was Tupac and Suge in the car,” Jefferson recalled.

Jefferson recognized the rapper and called out to him.

“I said, ‘Hey, what up, Pac?’ and he kind of looked at me,” Jefferson said. “I said, ‘Alright, cool.’”

Before the light changed, Jefferson made a split-second decision that would capture a moment in music history.

“I said, ‘Hey, let me get a picture real quick,’” he said. “And I had my camera, just turned and snapped a picture.”

The image shows Shakur sitting in the passenger seat of the BMW, looking toward Jefferson’s camera.

About a minute after Jefferson snapped the photograph, he said he heard gunfire.

“All of a sudden, I just heard pop, pop, pop, pop,” Jefferson recalled.

Shakur had been shot.

Jefferson said he heard Knight calling for help.

“Suge is saying, ‘My man Pac is shot. Pac is shot. Help him. Pac is shot,’” Jefferson said.

Shakur, 25, died from his injuries six days later.

Now, as the murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis continues in Las Vegas, Jefferson has been called to testify about what he witnessed that night and the photograph he took shortly before the shooting.

Davis is accused of orchestrating Shakur’s killing.

Nearly three decades later, Jefferson still has the Nikon film camera he used to capture the image.

“I’ve only pulled this out like twice,” he told KTLA. “Actually, only the second time.”

The photograph has since been reproduced by publications including Vibe and Vanity Fair, becoming an enduring image of the rapper’s final hours.

Jefferson’s story may soon reach another audience.

Filmmaker Cole Swanson said plans are underway for a short film centered on Jefferson and the photograph.

“What’s interesting to me as a storyteller is the photograph that everyone knows but a story that no one knows,” Swanson said.

For Jefferson, the photograph remains both a piece of history and a reminder of how quickly an ordinary moment at a Las Vegas stoplight became something much larger.

It was a single click of a camera shutter that changed his life and documented one of the final moments of Tupac Shakur’s life.

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help turn the story behind Shakur’s final photograph into a short film.