Rapper Tupac Shakur's gangland-style killing may have touched off a rash of retaliatory shootings that have led to three deaths, authorities said.
The connection to Shakur was announced after police Wednesday arrested 22 gang members implicated in as many as a dozen shootings in the Compton area."It is believed that perhaps the motive for some of these shootings may have been in retaliation for the shooting of Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas," Compton Police Chief Hourie Taylor said.
One of those arrested, Orlando Anderson, was to be questioned by Las Vegas police in connection with the Sept. 7 slaying of Shakur, Compton police said. It was unclear whether he was considered a suspect.
Taylor released few details about Anderson, saying only that he was believed to be a gang member in his early 20s and was arrested for investigation of a homicide in Compton, just south of Los Angeles.
Anderson's family denied he had anything to do with Shakur's death.
Shakur, one of rap's most successful and notorious singers, died a week after he was shot following a Mike Tyson boxing match. Marion "Suge" Knight, the head of Shakur's Death Row Records, was driving when another car pulled up and sprayed their car with gunfire.
Although Shakur had no known gang ties in Compton, Knight grew up there and may have ties to a local gang, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
Those arrested during the sweep were booked for investigation of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, assault with a deadly weapon and other offenses, Taylor said.
Also during the sweep, police confiscated 19 handguns, seven rifles, about $17,000 in cash, two bulletproof vests and about 2 pounds each of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.