A man in prison serving a life sentence for murder and other crimes has admitted that he was involved in the November 1994 shooting and robbery of the late rapper Tupac Shakur. The New York Police Department confirms to EW that they’ll look into the revelations and allegations made by Dexter Isaac, who sent a letter to AllHipHop.com apologizing to Shakur’s family and pointing a finger James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, a current fugitive who Isaac writes paid him $2,500 for the attack. (Shakur survived the assault, but he was killed two years later in another shooting that has never been solved.)

Isaac indicated that he was speaking out now to protest Henchman’s allegations that he was working with federal investigators against his former associate — “I have never been a rat for anybody,” he wrote — and “to give [Tupac and Biggie's] mothers some closure.”

Henchman’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, told the New York Daily News that Isaac’s accusation is “a flat out lie.” “Dexter Isaac is not claiming this 17 years later to clear his conscience,” Lichtman said. “He’s doing it because he’s told anybody who will listen he doesn’t want to die in prison. He has kids and wants to work off his sentence. He can’t be trusted.”