Cameras flashed as paramedics carried the victim into the glare of Times Square on a stretcher. Blood seeped through bandages from five gunshot wounds.

Tupac Shakur had been beaten, shot and left for dead at the Quad Recording Studios on New York’s 7th Avenue. As he was borne to a waiting ambulance through a swarm of paparazzi on Nov. 30, 1994, the rap star thrust his middle finger into the air.

It was a portentous moment in hip-hop — the start of a bicoastal war that would culminate years later in the killings of Shakur and rap’s other leading star, Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G.

The ambush at the Quad remains a source of fascination and frustration to music fans and law enforcement officials alike. No one has ever been charged in the attack.

Now, newly discovered information, including interviews with people who were at the studio that night, lends credence to Shakur’s insistence that associates of rap impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs were behind the assault. Their alleged motives: to punish Shakur for disrespecting them and rejecting their business overtures and, not incidentally, to curry favor with Combs.

The information focuses on two New York hip-hop figures — James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, now a top talent manager, and promoter James Sabatino, now in prison for unrelated crimes.

FBI records obtained recently by the Los Angeles Times say that a confidential informant told authorities in 2002 that Rosemond and Sabatino “set up the rapper Tupac Shakur to get shot at Quad Studios.”

The records — summaries of FBI interviews with the informant conducted in July and December 2002 — provide details of how Shakur was lured to the studio and ambushed. Others with knowledge of the incident corroborated the informant’s account in interviews with the Times and gave additional details. They spoke on condition that their names not be published.

According to this information, Rosemond and Sabatino enticed Shakur to the Quad by offering him $7,000 to provide a vocal track for a rap recording.

Three assailants — reputedly friends of Rosemond — were lying in wait. They were on orders to beat Shakur but not kill him and to make the incident look like a robbery, the sources said.

Sabatino informed Combs and Wallace in advance that a trap had been laid for Shakur, the sources said.

Rosemond, who has served prison time for drug dealing and weapons offenses, has been described by Vibe magazine as “one of the most respected and feared players in hip-hop.” His Czar Entertainment represents rappers Shyne, Too Short, Gucci Mane and the Game.

Rosemond has long denied any role in the Quad incident. He declined to be interviewed. In a statement he issued Monday, after a version of this article appeared on the Times’ Web site, Rosemond dismissed the new information as “garbage” and “a fabrication.”

“In the past 14 years, I have not even been questioned by law enforcement with regard to the assault of Tupac Shakur, let alone brought up on charges,” the statement said.

His lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said Rosemond “was not involved in the assault and will not be prosecuted for it.”

Sabatino declined to comment.

Combs, whose business empire includes Bad Boy Records and clothing and fragrance lines, also declined to be interviewed. In a statement, he said the new information was “a lie,” “beyond ridiculous and completely false.”

The statement said that neither Combs nor Wallace “had any knowledge of any attack before, during or after it happened.”

The Quad ambush had its roots in events a year earlier, when the Brooklyn-born Shakur, then 22, returned to New York from California to film the movie “Above the Rim.”

He befriended Rosemond, the son of Haitian immigrants, who had run with Brooklyn street gangs and worked in the crack trade before gravitating to the hip-hop scene.

According to accounts given by the two men and others over the years, Rosemond, then 29, took Shakur under his wing, showing him around the city and introducing him to friends, including an ex-convict named Jacques “Haitian Jack” Agnant. Shakur and Agnant hit it off and were soon partying at clubs across Manhattan.

There was a serious side to the revelry. Rosemond was trying to establish himself as a talent manager, and he and Agnant hoped to represent Shakur. They encouraged the rapper to sign a recording contract with Combs’ fledgling Bad Boy label, which had recently received more than $2 million in capital from BMG’s Arista division.

Shakur also became acquainted with Sabatino, a 19-year-old Italian American who co-promoted rap conventions with Rosemond. Sabatino had Brooklyn roots of a different kind: His father was a captain in the Colombo crime family, according to federal authorities.

Like Rosemond and Agnant, Sabatino wanted to ride Combs’ rising star, and he too leaned on Shakur to leave Interscope Records and sign with Bad Boy.

Shakur rejected these overtures. Members of Combs’ circle saw this as an act of disrespect.

Shakur’s behavior in New York grew increasingly provocative. He insulted music executives and gangsters alike. He brandished weapons in public. Even friends thought he was out of control.

In November 1993, Shakur, Agnant and two other men were arrested on charges of gang-raping a 19-year-old fan at the Parker Meridien Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

A year later, Shakur was back in New York to stand trial on the charges. By then, his former pals were laying plans to exact revenge, according to the FBI informant and the other sources.

On Nov. 29, 1994, two dozen Bad Boy executives and associates gathered on the 10th floor of the Quad to record songs for a debut album by Junior M.A.F.I.A. On hand, among others, were Combs, Notorious B.I.G., Rosemond, Agnant and Sabatino.

Rosemond had booked an adjacent studio to produce a recording by rapper Little Shawn, whose career he managed. This was the session at which Shakur was to be paid $7,000 for a guest vocal.

According to the FBI informant and the other sources, Rosemond never intended to record the session.

He had enlisted a trio of his friends from Brooklyn to ambush Shakur in the Quad’s lobby, the sources said. Agnant and Sabatino helped plan the attack, working out the timing, arranging for the three assailants to be driven to the studio and mapping out their escape route, according to the informant and the other sources.

Shakur’s friend Randy “Stretch” Walker was in on the plan, the sources said. In the hours before the attack, Shakur and Rosemond argued several times over the phone about how much Shakur would be paid. After the dispute was settled, Walker notified Agnant when Shakur was en route to the studio, the sources said.

Around 11:45 p.m., the lobby security guard was called away from his post, and the three assailants, dressed in army fatigues, moved into position. One sat in the guard’s chair. The two others waited outside.

Just after midnight, Shakur walked in with Walker and his manager, Fred Moore. As the rapper and his crew moved toward the elevator, the assailants confronted them and demanded their jewelry. When Shakur refused, the attackers began to pistol-whip him.

The rapper surprised them by drawing his own weapon. Gunfire erupted, and Shakur accidentally shot himself in the groin. The assailants shot Shakur four times. He sustained injuries to the head, hand and thigh. The men beat and kicked Shakur as he lay bleeding on the ground. Then, ripping a $40,000 gold medallion and chain from his neck, they escaped into the night.

Moore, who was also wounded, gave chase and collapsed in the street.

Shakur managed to limp into the elevator and push the button for the 10th floor. When the elevator doors opened, the rapper surveyed the assembled Bad Boy crowd.

In a 2005 interview with Vibe magazine, in which he denied any role in the attack, Rosemond described how the injured Shakur accused him of being in on the ambush.

Rosemond quoted the rapper as asking: “Why you let them know I’m coming here? You was the only (one) who knew, man. Why?”

In a bizarre twist, Shakur, bleeding badly, sat on a couch and rolled a joint, witnesses said. Police and paramedics, alerted by a 911 call, showed up minutes later. Shakur was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center.

The FBI informant said Agnant “seemed mad that Shakur was still alive and kept calling” the hospital “to check on Shakur’s status.”

Efforts to reach Agnant for comment were unsuccessful.

The three men identified by the sources as Shakur’s assailants are all serving time in federal penitentiaries for unrelated crimes. The Times is withholding their names because they have not been charged.

In correspondence with the Times, one of the men said that Rosemond orchestrated the ambush. Another was cryptic. He wrote that the statute of limitations for the assault had expired, and he offered to produce, for an unspecified fee, the medallion stolen from Shakur.

The third inmate denied involvement in the attack.

The next day — Dec. 1, 1994 — a heavily bandaged Shakur rolled into court in a wheelchair to hear the jury’s verdict in the Parker Meridien case. He was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse and later sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. Shakur served part of the sentence before being freed on bond while he appealed the verdict. (Agnant had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges and avoided prison.)

The Quad ambush triggered a vicious feud between East Coast and West Coast rappers and their record labels, New York-based Bad Boy and Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, where Shakur signed.

In April 1995, Vibe magazine published a prison interview with Shakur in which he said Combs and his associates were responsible for the attack. Not long after, Bad Boy released a song by the Notorious B.I.G., “Who Shot Ya?,” which closes with a taunt:

“You rewind this

“Bad Boy’s behind this.”

In June of that year, Death Row founder Marion “Suge” Knight mocked Combs onstage during a rap awards show in Manhattan. Two months later, Knight’s bodyguard was shot and killed at a club in Atlanta; no one was ever charged.

In November 1995 — a year to the day after the Quad ambush — Shakur’s onetime companion, “Stretch” Walker, was shot dead in Queens, N.Y.

The following year, in the song “Hit ‘Em Up,” Shakur belittled Combs, bragged that he had sex with B.I.G.’s wife and vowed retribution for the Quad assault.

On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip. Six months later, the Notorious B.I.G. was shot dead in Los Angeles, also in a drive-by. No one has been charged in either slaying.

In the years after the mayhem at the Quad, Rosemond tried to dispel persistent rumors that he arranged the attack. He protested his innocence in Vibe magazine and appealed to Shakur, in vain, to cease his public accusations.

The New York police investigation into the attack quickly hit a dead end. But federal prosecutors conducting a broad investigation of the rap business have continued to explore the incident. Music industry figures have been called before a federal grand jury and questioned about what happened that night.

Two months after Shakur was killed, his album “The Don Killuminati” entered the pop charts at No. 1 and sold 800,000 copies in its first week. In the song “Against All Odds,” Shakur, like a ghost from the grave, calls out those he held responsible for starting the violence:

“Puffy (one of Combs’ nicknames), let’s be honest, you a punk. …

“You can tell the people you roll with whatever you want

“But you and I know

“What’s goin’ on.”

Shakur then mentions “a snitch named Haitian Jack” and promises “a payback” to “Jimmy Henchman in due time.”

“Set me up, wet me up. … stuck me up,” he sings.

“But you tricks never shut me up.”