Tupac murder trial: 'All hell broke loose' night of rapper's shooting, witness says

Prosecutors on the opening day of Tupac Shakur's murder trial portrayed former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis as the mastermind behind the drive-by shooting that killed the iconic rapper nearly three decades ago.

Davis, 63, is charged with Shakur's murder. Prosecutors allege that although he did not pull the trigger, he organised the shooting in retaliation for an earlier fight involving his nephew, Orlando Anderson, and the rapper.

Davis has pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations.

“Let's be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told the Las Vegas jury during opening arguments. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”

The prosecution's case centres partly on a memoir Davis co-authored in 2019, in which he described the night of the shooting and claimed he was in the vehicle from which Shakur was shot.

Davis has since distanced himself from the book, saying he did not write all of it and that some sections were fictionalised to increase sales.

His defence team described the prosecution's account as “fiction” and argued that the case is the result of a flawed investigation that remained unresolved for nearly 30 years.

“What facts do they have after 30 years?” defence attorney Michael Sanft asked the jury, questioning why nobody was arrested for so long and “no one corroborates any of this”.

Prosecutors link killing to gang rivalry

The case takes the jury back to the violent world of 1990s hip-hop, when the rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rap scenes intersected with conflicts between the Bloods and Crips street gangs.

Shakur, one of the most influential figures in hip-hop, was shot on September 7, 1996, after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas. He died six days later at the age of 25.

Prosecutors allege Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, became involved in the killing after Anderson was involved in a fight with Shakur in Las Vegas earlier that night.

They contend Davis believed the attack on his nephew could not “go unanswered” and became the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Shakur.

According to the prosecution, Davis obtained a gun and organised two vehicles to travel to a Las Vegas club. One of the vehicles, a white Cadillac, carried Anderson and two other men.

Palal told the jury that the group initially planned to get drinks and return to the Las Vegas Strip to party. But as they travelled, they encountered a convoy of vehicles that included Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.

Prosecutors allege Davis and the others then made a U-turn and confronted Shakur and Knight.

Davis, who was sitting in the passenger seat, allegedly passed a gun to Anderson, who fired into Shakur's vehicle.

First witnesses recall night of shooting

The prosecution's first witness was Garry Dale, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer who responded to the shooting.

Dale testified that he travelled with Shakur in an ambulance after the rapper was shot. According to the officer, Shakur refused to provide information about what had happened or identify his attacker.

“We'll take care of it,” Shakur told him, Dale testified.

Another witness, Ingrid Stokes, described the moments immediately before the shooting.

Stokes said she and her friends were driving around Las Vegas when they encountered Knight and Shakur. A friend who knew Knight suggested they follow the group to a club.

As they drove through Las Vegas, Stokes said, another vehicle appeared to be following them and repeatedly tried to get in front of their car.

The women eventually stopped at a traffic light and pulled over to change drivers because they were concerned about the vehicle behind them.

“We were head down, taking our seat belts off, when we heard the gunshots,” Stokes testified. “All hell broke loose.”

Defence challenges decades-old investigation

The defence has focused on the long delay in bringing charges and the reliability of the evidence against Davis.

His attorneys have pointed to missing police reports, disputed evidence and what they describe as “biased, sloppy and incomplete” detective work.

They have also argued that prosecutors are relying on witnesses with criminal records, financial motivations and inconsistent accounts.

The defence says some witnesses changed their stories over the years and may have been influenced by money, media attention or information provided by investigators.

Police have long said that a lack of cooperation from witnesses and people connected to the gangs contributed to the investigation reaching dead ends. Prosecutors told jurors that in the world of guns and gangs, “silence means survival”.

But prosecutors argue that Davis was an exception.

They say he made a number of statements about the shooting between 1998 and 2003 and later discussed it publicly in his memoir and interviews.

Davis has claimed that he was a passenger in the vehicle involved in the shooting and said in the book that he handed the gun used in the killing to Anderson.

The memoir's admissibility became a major issue before trial, with Davis's lawyers arguing that it should not be used as evidence. A judge ruled that prosecutors could present it to the jury.

Opening statements began on Monday after a week of jury selection. The trial is expected to continue for several weeks, with witnesses, investigators and experts scheduled to testify about the events surrounding Shakur's death.

The case, one of the most prominent cold cases in modern music history, now hinges on whether prosecutors can convince the jury that Davis orchestrated the killing despite not being the person who fired the fatal shot.