Gang Leader Goes on Trial 30 Years After Murder of US Rapper, TUPAC SHAKUR

Nearly thirty years after the high-profile unresolved assassination of US rapper, TUPAC SHAKUR, a former gang leader is being put on trial in Las Vegas over the incident.

US prosecutors aim to show that the onetime leader of the South Side Compton Crips, DUANE “KEFFE D” DAVIS, ordered TUPAC’s killing and provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.

However, the trial of sixty-three-years-old DAVIS will likely not reveal who fired the shots that killed the hip-hop legend on the night of September 7, 1996.

This is because the defendant was in Sin City to see a MIKE TYSON boxing match, although he faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

2PAC SHAKUR is known for hits like “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me,” and also a key figure in a hip-hop rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast crews, leading up to his death at the age of twenty-five.

The trial is expected to revisit the battle between Death Row, founded by MARION “SUGE” KNIGHT, and Bad Boy Records, created by SEAN “DIDDY” COMBS, with the late CHRISTOPHER WALLACE, better known as “The Notorious B.I.G.” as the lead artist, who was equally murdered in controversial circumstance in March 1997.

Prosecutors say Death Row Records was protected by Mob Piru, a Los Angeles gang that was part of the wider Bloods alliance, and that KNIGHT was affiliated with the group.

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

After the Tyson fight at the MGM Grand casino, Knight and Shakur beat up Davis’s nephew, Crips member Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, in retribution over an alleged assault of a Death Row employee.

Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and others pulled up beside Shakur’s car in Las Vegas. Shots were fired from the Cadillac, and Shakur was fatally wounded.