Sanyika Shakur
Shooting and hospitalization
### Shooting and hospitalization

Shakur, along with his best friend Deautri "Crazy De" Denard, were deeply involved in this gang war and were responsible for shooting and assaulting dozens of members of the Rollin' 60s. On December 31, 1980, 16\-year\-old Shakur was ambushed and shot six times by three adult members of the Rollin' 60s after being set up by a group of girls who were dating friends from his set. Perhaps what saved his life was the fact that earlier that evening Shakur had been drinking a cheap brand of [low\-end fortified wine](/wiki/Low-end_fortified_wine "Low-end fortified wine") called Night Train and smoked [PCP](/wiki/Phencyclidine "Phencyclidine") with other members of the ETGs as the gang celebrated [New Year's Eve](/wiki/New_Year%27s_Eve "New Year's Eve"), and the level of inebriation that Shakur was under at the time of the shooting prevented him from going into [shock](/wiki/Shock_%28circulatory%29 "Shock (circulatory)"). After being shot, Shakur reported having [hallucinations](/wiki/Hallucinations "Hallucinations") of seeing the faces of all of the gang members he had shot since joining the Crips, as well as seeing the infant daughter that he had with his girlfriend Tamu. Shakur survived the shooting and was hospitalized for several weeks.

Shakur's younger brother Kershaun, who was by now a member of the Eight Trays and nicknamed Li'l Monster, sought vengeance for his older brother's shooting. On New Years Day 1981, Kershaun and several teenage members of the ETGs committed a string of retaliatory shootings. Kershaun shot two teenagers who were standing in the front yard at a house party that was being thrown in the Rollin' 60's neighborhood and, later that evening, shot another teenager to death in a drive\-by as the young man was walking down the street.

Kershaun was later arrested and sentenced to five years in California Youth Authority for murder as a juvenile. While recovering in the hospital, Shakur's assailants from the Rollin' 60s came to the hospital in an attempt to finish him off. Due to the intervention of a nurse who was attending to him, however, Shakur was unharmed. When he was released from the hospital, he continued gang\-banging and would spend the remainder of the 1980s in and out of the [penal system](/wiki/Penal_system "Penal system") for numerous violent offenses.


Why did Shakur continue to engage in gang activity after being shot?