Jury selection has begun in the long-awaited trial of Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis, nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas. Davis is the first person ever charged in connection with the rapper’s murder, bringing a case that spent decades unresolved into a courtroom at last. Tupac was shot on September 7, 1996, after attending the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand with Death Row Records co-founder Marion ‘Suge’ Knight. Earlier that night, surveillance cameras captured Tupac and several members of the Death Row entourage attacking Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson inside the casino. Hours later, Tupac was riding in the passenger seat of Knight’s BMW when a white Cadillac pulled alongside them near the Las Vegas Strip. Gunfire erupted from the Cadillac, striking Tupac multiple times. Knight was wounded but survived. Tupac died six days later at 25. Investigators spent years examining the people in both vehicles and those surrounding the events of that night. The case also accumulated witnesses, detectives, alleged confessions, and competing accounts of who actually fired the gun. Some of the names are immediately recognizable. Others have remained largely outside the public conversation despite their importance to the prosecution now unfolding. Understanding who is who matters because not everyone connected to Tupac’s murder played the same role. Several entered the story years later through police interviews or testimony. As Keefe D’s trial begins, these are the key players behind one of Hip Hop’s most scrutinized murder cases.nnFor decades, Orlando Anderson was the most frequently mentioned figure in the question of who shot Tupac. He was Keefe D’s nephew and a member of the South Side Compton Crips, placing him at the center of the confrontation prosecutors say set the murder in motion. Prosecutors say former South Side Compton Crips leader helped organize the attack as retaliation for the beating of his nephew, Orlando Anderson, at the MGM Grand. Davis is the first person ever charged in connection with the rapper’s murder, bringing a case that spent decades unresolved into a courtroom at last. Tupac was shot on September 7, 1996, after attending the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand with Death Row Records co-founder Marion ‘Suge’ Knight. Surveillance cameras captured Tupac and several members of the Death Row entourage attacking Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson inside the casino. Hours later, Tupac was riding in the passenger seat of Knight’s BMW when a white Cadillac pulled alongside them near the Las Vegas Strip. Gunfire erupted from the Cadillac, striking Tupac multiple times. Knight was wounded but survived. Tupac died six days later at 25. Investigators spent years examining the people in both vehicles and those surrounding the events of that night. The case also accumulated witnesses, detectives, alleged confessions, and competing accounts of who actually fired the gun. Some of the names are immediately recognizable. Others have remained largely outside the public conversation despite their importance to the prosecution now unfolding.nnThe case against him comes from statements he made years after Tupac’s death. Davis discussed the shooting during a 2008 law-enforcement interview and later wrote about it in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. He now disputes those accounts, arguing that portions were embellished or untrue. His defense unsuccessfully tried to keep both the interview and memoir away from jurors. Judge Carli Kierny ruled that prosecutors may use them at trial.nnDavis has pleaded not guilty. He is also the only alleged occupant of the Cadillac who is still alive, making his own words unusually important to a case where the other men accused of participating can no longer testify. Keefe D may have been able to confirm that Orlando Anderson or Deandrae Smith pulled the trigger, but the details remain unclear. The defense has tried to redirect some of the scrutiny toward a man whose job was once protecting Death Row Records. Reggie Wright Jr., a former Compton police officer who later headed security for the label, testified before the grand jury indicted Keefe D. Wright. Wright has said he spent much of the night Tupac was shot handling security arrangements for the club where Tupac and Knight planned to go after the Tyson fight. Kadafi stayed in Las Vegas while Tupac was hospitalized, but detectives never completed a formal identification with him. Police later said they tried to arrange a follow-up through an attorney after obtaining photographs of possible suspects. His family pushed back on suggestions that he had been difficult to reach and criticized investigators for not questioning him more thoroughly while he was still in the city.nnDetectives eventually interviewed Kadafi again in March 2026 and showed him a folder containing photographs of possible suspects. He was unable to identify the shooter because he died in November 2004. Whatever he might have been able to confirm about the Cadillac was never recorded. Driving the vehicle directly behind Tupac and Suge Knight put Frank Alexander close enough to catch a brief glimpse of the shooter as the Cadillac opened fire. The bodyguard later said he believed he might have been able to identify the man if investigators had shown him photographs or arranged a lineup. Furthermore, Wright has repeatedly denied the accusation and points instead to Keefe D’s own history of discussing the shooting. ‘I was in charge of possibly protecting this young man,’ he previously told ABC’s Nightline. Wright argues that Combs had no role in Tupac’s death. When former LAPD detective Greg Kading published the allegation in Murder Rap, Combs disputed the story. He has never been charged in connection with the 1996 shooting. Additionally, Keefe D has since backed away from the accusation himself. During an August 2026 interview with 8 News Now, he said he does not believe Combs had anything to do with Tupac’s murder. That reversal is notable because prosecutors are expected to rely heavily on Davis’ earlier statements as they challenge his current insistence that much of what he previously said about the case was untrue.”}”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”,”
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Source: HotNewHipHop
