Former Rapper Davis Charged with Shakur's Murder, Allegedly Orchestrated by Former Mob Ins

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Former Rapper Davis Charged with Shakur's Murder, Allegedly Orchestrated by Former Mob Ins
Photo: PBS NewsHour
politics· A press review of 8 outlets
  1. Davis, 63, is charged with Shakur's murder. Prosecutors allege that although Davis did not fire the gun that killed the influential rapper, he allegedly orchestrated the killing. Davis has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty.

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    Associated Press

    LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some members of Tupac Shakur’s family stepped out of the courtroom Tuesday before prosecutors showed photos from his autopsy at the Las Vegas trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is charged with orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed the rap giant.

    USA Today

    Davis is the only person who has ever been charged in connection with Shakur's murder and has pleaded not guilty.

    New York Post

    Duane "Keffe D" Davis appears in court for his murder trial related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur at the Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada Tuesday. via REUTERS

    The Guardian US

    Nearly 30 years after the iconic artist’s killing, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, a former South Side Compton Crips gang leader, faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the 1996 shooting. Prosecutors are alleging that Davis helped orchestrate the shooting, though he is not accused of being the gunman. Davis has pleaded not guilty.

    PBS NewsHour

    Forensic pathologist details Tupac Shakur's fatal wounds in Duane 'Keffe D' Davis trial LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some members of Tupac Shakur's family stepped out of the courtroom Tuesday before prosecutors showed photos from his autopsy at the Las Vegas trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who is charged with orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed the rap giant. READ MORE: Opening statements begin in long-awaited trial in Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing Others remained in the courtroom to face the grim facts of what happened to his...

    NPR News

    LAS VEGAS — A prosecutor said Monday that while few have been willing to speak about the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur, Duane "Keffe D" Davis is the "one person who has a hard time being silent."

    HuffPost

    Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, a former street gang leader, is accused of orchestrating the drive-by shooting of the 25-year-old rapper as payback for the beating of his nephew by Shakur and others days earlier.

  2. McDonald was a lieutenant for Suge Knight, a fellow Mob Piru member and the head of Shakur’s label Death Row Records.

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    BBC News

    McDonald - a former member of rival Blood street gang offshoot Mob Piru and enforcer at Suge Knight's Death Row Records label, which represented Shakur - testified that he was not with Shakur when the shooting took place.

  3. The officer detailed riding in an ambulance with Shakur after he'd been shot. He said the rapper refused to offer any information on what happened and who had shot him. "We'll take care of it," Shakur said, according to the officer's testimony.

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    NPR News

    Dale jumped in the ambulance and asked Shakur who shot him. The retired officer said that Shakur said something like "no, we'll take care of it."

  4. Ingrid Stokes, who was present at the time of the shooting, testified that she and her friends were driving around Las Vegas that night, before they ran into Knight and Shakur.

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    NPR News

    Witnesses describe the night Tupac was shot Ingrid Stokes testified that she and her friends were heading home from Las Vegas when they encountered Shakur and Knight, who were friends with a woman in Stokes' group.

From the margins

6 details only one outlet reported

Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.

  1. 01 New York Post

    “Mob James” McDonald — former member of Compton’s Mob Piru Gang and private muscle for Death Row Records — scoffed at lawyers on both sides who peppered him with questions about the gang war that led to the rapper’s 1996 murder on the Las Vegas Strip.

  2. 02 BBC News

    James "Mob James" McDonald said he was threatened with being held in contempt of court if he did not testify on Tuesday.

  3. 03 USA Today

    James McDonald, a former Death Row Records associate and Bloods street gang member, took the stand on Tuesday, Aug. 18, for a tense line of questioning. McDonald was in Las Vegas the night of Sept. 7, 1996, serving in what he described as a security role for the label, but insisted he did not witness the fatal shooting.

  4. 04 Associated Press

    Dr. Lisa Gavin, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner for Clark County, Nevada, was among the early witnesses on the second day of testimony. Jurors were shown a photo of a green body bag at the beginning of her questioning, followed by a grisly photo of his body. Some relatives who remained in the courtroom looked away. One woman got up to leave once the photos were shown.

  5. 05 The Guardian US

    The court heard brief testimony from Thomas Kern, who was a crime scene analyst for the Las Vegas police department in 1996, who was present at the autopsy of Tupac Shakur, and is authenticating evidence from the autopsy. Kern did not face any cross-examination.

  6. 06 NPR News

    Davis spent the next two hours planning how to get even, said Palal, and Shakur was gunned down "in an act of revenge."

Assembled from 4 corroborated claims drawn from 8 independent outlets. Every passage above is taken verbatim — Dorothy doesn't paraphrase or summarize.

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Coverage by Perspective

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Sources (8)

  • bbc
  • guardian
  • npr
  • nypost
  • pbs
  • ap
  • usatoday
  • huffpost

Original Articles (10)