Tupac’s alleged killer wanted payback, jury hears

Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead in a revenge attack ordered by a gangster who later bragged about it. Jurors heard this on Monday as one of America’s most awaited trials started, nearly 30 years after Tupac's murder.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, a gang that controlled parts of Los Angeles in the 1990s, ordered the hit after his nephew was beaten by a rival gang. Prosecutor Binu Pilal shared this in a Las Vegas court.

“On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur publicly, on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson,” he said.

“Then, two and a half hours later… Tupac is gunned down in a drive-by shooting from a white Cadillac in an act of revenge.”

Pilal stated that Davis did not pull the trigger, but he gave the gun to someone in the back seat of his car and told that person to shoot the rapper.

In several interviews with law enforcement, media, and even in his autobiography, Davis admitted his part in the murder, Pilal noted.

“Over the years, in private interviews, in public statements, and even in private calls, Duane Davis has repeatedly told us about the anger he felt, and his own role in the revenge drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur.

“And now, nearly 30 years later, we’re going to ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable,” he told the jury.

Davis, 63, denies all charges in the trial, which may last over a month. If found guilty, he faces life in prison without parole.

The murder of Shakur, also known as 2Pac, is one of America’s most famous unsolved cases, sparking endless debate among music fans about who was responsible and why.

The rapper, who was just 25 when he died, was a major figure in a hip-hop rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast of the US.

Known for hits like “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me,” Shakur was raised in Harlem and Baltimore. He later became the face of a California bad boy when he joined Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.

The trial will look back at the conflict between Death Row, founded by Marion “Suge” Knight, and Bad Boy Records, the East Coast label created by Sean “Diddy” Combs, which signed Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, who was killed in March 1997.

Prosecutors say Death Row Records had protection from Mob Piru, a Los Angeles gang linked to the Bloods. Knight had connections to that group.

Bad Boy Records hired the rival South Side Compton Crips, led by Davis, as bodyguards.

Knight and Shakur were in Las Vegas for a boxing match featuring Mike Tyson when they attacked Davis’s nephew, Crips member Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, in revenge for an alleged assault on a Death Row employee.

Davis wanted payback, according to the prosecutors.

Later that night, a white Cadillac with Davis, Anderson, and others pulled up next to Shakur’s car in Las Vegas. Shots were fired from the Cadillac, and Shakur was seriously injured.

The investigation went cold for years due to a lack of evidence, but the case got new life when Davis’s memoirs came out in 2019.

In the book, he claimed he was in the front seat of the Cadillac and handed a gun to those in the back seat. But he did not specify who shot Shakur. Everyone else in the Cadillac that night has since died.

Davis later changed his story, claiming the statements were exaggerated and were written by a ghostwriter to sell books. He has pleaded not guilty.