Afeni Shakur dead: Mother of rapper Tupac Shakur was 69

Afeni Shakur

Afeni Shakur, mother of rapper Tupac Shakur, is seen at the 2Pac 40th Birthday Concert Celebration on Thursday, June 16, 2011, in Atlanta.

Tupac Shakur’s mother is dead at the age of 69, according to multiple reports.

The Marin County Sheriff’s Department in California told WSB-TV that authorities were called to the home of Afeni Shakur Davis in Sausalto for a report of a possible cardiac arrest on Monday night. She died at a local hospital less than an hour later Monday night.

According to the New York Daily News, Afeni was born Alice Faye Williams but changed her name when she moved to New York City and joined the Black Panther movement. She and a group of other Black Panthers were arrested in 1969 and charged with conspiracy to bomb multiple, busy city landmarks; she was acquitted on all charges a month before giving birth to Tupac in 1971.

Afeni Shakur took over the hip-hop icon’s estate after his shooting death in 1996, managing his posthumous legacy and co-producing the Broadway musical “Holler If Ya Hear Me,” based on his music. She also founded the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, and served as the CEO of Amaru Entertainment, Inc., a record and film production company she founded in Atlanta.

She’ll be portrayed by “The Walking Dead” actress Danai Gurira (a.k.a. Michonne) in an upcoming Tupac biopic, “All Eyez On Me,” starring newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr. as Tupac Shakur and “Notorious” actor Jamal Woolard as his friend-turned-rival Notorious B.I.G. Afeni Shakur served as an executive producer for the project, which has no release date yet.