At 10:55 p.m., while paused at a red light, Shakur rolled down his window and a photographer took his photograph.[38] At around 11:00-11:05 p.m., they were halted on Las Vegas Blvd. by Metro bicycle cops for playing the car stereo too loud and not having license plates. The plates were then found in the trunk of Suge's car; they were released without being fined a few minutes later.[39][38] At about 11:10 p.m., while stopped at a red light at Flamingo Road near the intersection of Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their right side. Shakur, who was standing up through the sunroof, exchanged words with the two women, and invited them to go to Club 662.[38] At approximately 11:15 p.m., a white, four-door, late-model, Cadillac driven by unknown person(s) pulled up to the sedan's right side, rolled down one of the windows, and rapidly fired around twelve to thirteen shots at Shakur. He was struck by four rounds; one hit him in the chest, the pelvis, and his right hand and thigh.[40][38] One of the rounds apparently ricocheted into Shakur's right lung.[41] Suge was hit in the head by shrapnel, though it is thought that a bullet grazed him.[42] According to Suge, a bullet from the gunfire had been lodged in his skull, but medical reports later contradicted this statement.[43]
At the time of the drive-by, Shakur was riding alongside Suge, with his bodyguard following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones, Shakur's then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Knight's car, Shakur asked him to drive Kidada Jones' car instead just in case they were too drunk and needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel. Shortly after the assault, the bodyguard reported in his documentary, Before I Wake, that one of the convoy's cars drove off after the assailant but he never heard back from the occupants.
After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Suge and a fatally wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center. According to an interview with one of Shakur's closest friends and music video director Gobi, while at the hospital, he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the record label and were sending death threats aimed at Shakur, claiming that they were going there to "finish him off".[44] Upon hearing this, Gobi immediately alerted the Las Vegas police, but the police claimed they were understaffed and no one could be sent.[44] Nonetheless, the shooters never arrived.[44] At the hospital, Shakur was in and out of consciousness; heavily sedated, breathed through a ventilator and respirator, was placed on life support machines, and was ultimately put under a barbiturate-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of the bed.[45][44][40]
Despite having been resuscitated in a trauma center and surviving a multitude of surgeries (as well the removal of a failed right lung), Shakur had gotten through the critical phase of the medical therapy and had a 50% chance of pulling through.[41] Gobi left the medical center after being informed that Shakur made a 13% recovery on the sixth night.[44] While in Critical Care Unit on the afternoon of September 13, 1996, Shakur died of internal bleeding; doctors attempted to revive him but could not impede his hemorrhaging.[45][40] His mother, Afeni, made the decision to tell the doctors to stop.[45][41] He was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. (PDT)[40] The official cause of death was respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds.[40] Shakur's body was cremated.[46] Some of his ashes were later mixed with cannabis and smoked by members of Outlawz.[47]