Orlando Tive “Baby Lane” Anderson was born August 13, 1974 to Harvey Lee Anderson, and Charlotte Davis. [1] [2] Charlotte worked 12-hour shifts as a bookkeeper, but weekends were heavily dedicated to family gatherings. [3]
Though Orlando’s parents split, he still had a stable childhood and grew up in the home of his great-grandmother who was named Utah surrounded by aunts, uncles and grandparents in Compton.[4] According to his half-brother Pooh, he was a conscientious student who passed his exams at Taft High School, where Ice Cube also attended.[5] He transferred to Dominguez Hills his senior year where he dated a young woman named Rasheena Smith and graduated in 1992.[6] Neither a drinker nor a smoker, he lived on South Burris, an area heavily affiliated with South Side Crips.[7]
By 1996, he moved to Lakewood with Smith, a nurse, and had two girls, Krystal, then aged two, and Courtney, one.[8] He also had a daughter, Ariel, with another woman named Taiece Lanier.[9] Never convicted of a crime, he dreamt of a career in the music business and began a record label with Pooh called Success Records [10] Also, a sports aficionado, he and Smith drove to Las Vegas on September 7, 1996 to watch the Mike Tyson fight and checked into the Excalibur across from the MGM Grand.[11]
In the lobby of the MGM Hotel, he and rapper Tupac were involved in a fight three hours before Tupac was fatally shot.[12] According to an informant, a Piru Blood named Trevon ‘Tray’ Lane affiliated with Death Row Records had pointed Orlando out to Tupac as a rival Crip.[13] Lane claimed that Orlando and a gang of Crips confronted him at a Lakewood mall and had his chain snatched at the Footlocker.[14] The informant also stated that Orlando was the man who shot Tupac.[15] Orlando was eventually named a suspect in the murder of Tupac Shakur, but Las Vegas police discounted him after only interviewing him once briefly.[16] He denied being the murderer to both VIBE magazine and told the Los Angeles Times that Shakur was a “hero” he respected and admired. [17] [18]
On October 2, 1996, Orlando was arrested for the April 12 slaying of Edward Webb who had been attacked from behind and shot dead at a party by “several black males.” [19] Police were hoping to question him about Shakur’s murder but were unable to make a case out of the circumstantial evidence from informants as they only detailed what members of Blood gangs and their associates at Death Row Records were saying about an alleged Crip.[20] The Compton police were unable able to satisfy the district attorney with enough information to hold him for the murder of Edward Webb, and DA Janet Moore ordered that Orlando be released.[21]
Orlando was freed, but was still known to the streets as “the man who shot Tupac” and feared for his life.[22] In 1998, he and Rasheena had another daughter, Sierra.[23] Though unemployed, he found a garage in Compton to act as Success Records’ headquarters, built a studio with Pooh and started recording local talent.[24] According to his business advisor, Greg Cross, Orlando was allegedly able to start the label with money he received from a former lawsuit involving Death Row.[25]
After being subpoenaed as a witness at Suge Knight’s parole hearings in 1995, Orlando was rumored to have been paid off to switch his original testimony by Knight’s record label, Death Row Records.[26] He originally testified that Knight had assaulted him at a studio for using a phone without Knight’s permission.[27] However, presiding Judge J Stephen Czuleger knew Orlando was lying when he stated, “Suge was the only one I heard saying, ‘Stop this shit!’” [28]
On May 29, 1998, Orlando and friend, Michael Reed Dorrough, spotted Michael Stone and his nephew, Jerry Stone, at a carwash.[29] Tempers flared after Orlando confronted Michael Stone about money owed and all four were fatally hit in a gunfight.[30] Orlando tried to drive himself and Dorrough to safety, but lapsed into unconsciousness en route to Martin Luther King Jr-Drew Medical Center where he died.[31]
Recently, Orlando’s uncle Duane Keith “Keefe D” Davis had a search warrant executed on his Las Vegas home for his alleged role in the death of Tupac Shakur.
Cited Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/jan/09/life1.lifemagazine4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Anderson
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-16-me-32760-story.html
https://archive.vn/20120912105311/http://www.streetgangs.com/topics/tupac/1297interview.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/jan/09/life1.lifemagazine4
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Anderson
[3] https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/jan/09/life1.lifemagazine4
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Anderson
[13] https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/jan/09/life1.lifemagazine4
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-16-me-32760-story.html
[17] https://archive.vn/20120912105311/http://www.streetgangs.com/topics/tupac/1297interview.html
[18] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-sep-16-me-32760-story.html
[19] https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/jan/09/life1.lifemagazine4
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Ibid.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Ibid.
[31] Ibid.
