Attack at Quad Recording Studios
On the night of November 30, 1994, the day before the verdict in his sexual abuse trial was to be announced, Shakur was robbed and shot five times by three men in the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan.[124] Shakur said that he believed the robbery was simply a setup for the attack, wondering why they would take jewelry and leave his Rolex watch.[125][126] Three hours after surgery for his wounds, Shakur checked out of the Bellevue Hospital Center against doctor's orders. In the day that followed, he entered the courthouse in a wheelchair in the verdict hearing for his sexual abuse trial. He was found guilty of three counts of molestation and found not guilty of six other charges, including sodomy, stemming from his 1993 arrest.[127]
In a 1995 interview with Vibe magazine, Shakur accused Sean Combs,[128] Jimmy Henchman,[124] and Biggie, among others, of setting up the Quad Recording Studios attack. Vibe changed the names of the accused assailants upon publication.[129] Later evidence did not implicate Biggie in the studio assault. When Biggie's entourage went downstairs to check on the incident, Shakur was being taken out on a stretcher, giving the finger to those around.[130][131]
On March 17, 2008, Chuck Philips wrote in the Los Angeles Times about an alleged order for an attack on Shakur.[132] The article was retracted by the LA Times because it relied partially on FBI documents, which were discovered to have been forged; they had been supplied by a man convicted of fraud.[133] In 2011, Dexter Isaac admitted to having attacked Shakur on Henchman's orders.[134][135][136] Following Isaac's public confession, Philips named Isaac as one of his unnamed sources for the retracted article.[137]