Photo Credit: Nick Leisure / CC by 2.0
Suge Knight refuses to testify against Keefe D in the Tupac Shakur murder case, despite being an eyewitness to the 1996 shooting.
Despite the recent developments in the investigation into the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight throws a wrench into the mix by refusing to testify. Duane “Keefe D” Davis, who was arrested by Las Vegas police last week in connection to the murder, allegedly orchestrated the hit on Tupac and is the only suspect who is still alive.
Davis, a former gang member now aged 60, has been charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang. His are the first charges made in the almost 30-year-old case — Tupac Shakur died of his injuries days after he was shot on the night of September 7, 1996, at age 25.
Suge Knight, who is currently serving an unrelated 28-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, was an eyewitness to the Las Vegas shooting. The former record executive was seated next to Tupac in the car when he was shot and was also wounded in the drive-by shooting. He spoke with TMZ over the phone on Monday (October 2) to give his thoughts on the recent developments in Tupac’s lengthy homicide investigation.
“I (didn’t) think Keefe D would ever get arrested, nor do I want to see him get arrested,” said Knight. “Whatever circumstances — if he had an involvement with anything, if he didn’t have an involvement with anything — I wouldn’t wish somebody going to prison on my worst enemy.”
Knight has claimed that, despite popular belief, Keefe D’s nephew Orlando Anderson was not the shooter. Anderson was killed in a gang-related shooting shortly after Tupac’s death.
“There were only two people in the car; ‘Pac’s not gonna tell the story, I ain’t gonna tell the story,” Knight continued. “I never had nothing bad to say about Orlando, (because) he wasn’t the shooter.”
When asked if he would take the stand to testify against Keefe D, Suge Knight said in no uncertain terms that he would not. “I wouldn’t go; I wouldn’t testify. None of that s**t.”
In the weeks leading up to Keefe D’s arrest, another witness who testified also said that Orlando Anderson didn’t shoot Tupac, telling a Las Vegas grand jury that Deandre “Big Dre” Smith was the shooter. Smith was allegedly in the car’s backseat, from which they fired the shots, while detectives believe Anderson was sitting next to him. Keefe D and another man, Terrence Brown, sat up front.
Keefe is now the only suspect who is still alive, and allegedly orchestrated the hit against Tupac as “retribution” for an attack against Anderson in the lobby of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas earlier that night. A car pulled up alongside Tupac and Suge Knight’s BMW at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane and opened fire, shooting the rapper four times, while a bullet fragment struck Knight in the head. Tupac died in the hospital six days later.
