Nearly three decades after 2Pac’s tragic death in Las Vegas, the trial for his murder began with jury selection on August 10. Duane “Keefe D” Davis is facing a murder charge following his arrest in 2023.
As the only surviving witness to Tupac Shakur’s murder, Death Row Records cofounder Suge Knight was with 2Pac during the September 7, 1996, drive-by shooting. Their vehicle was shot at multiple times while leaving a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Knight has consistently refused to cooperate with authorities regarding 2Pac’s murder and intends to maintain his distance from the trial now, 30 years later.
“I don’t get paid to solve homicides,” the 61-year-old told ABC News.
Knight added, “They make me come there against my will. If Keefe D’s lawyers bring me there, it don’t look good for him. If the prosecution brings me there, it don’t look good for them. Leave me out of it … You have people who wasn’t there, wasn’t in the car, but they’re telling the story.”
Even though it’s been nearly 30 years since Shakur’s killing, Suge Knight asserted, “There’s not a day that goes by that [I], personally, [don’t] think about 2Pac, or I miss 2Pac. That’s my brother.”
Knight argued that taking the stand would be worse than pulling the trigger on someone because, in his view, if you betray them, it’s akin to them dying a million deaths.
“I am not going to be responsible for sending another man to prison for the rest of his life,” he continued. “If God’s forgiving, who am I to think I’m bigger than God and don’t forgive? Because I’m not.”
Suge Knight is currently incarcerated in California, serving a 28-year sentence after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter related to a deadly hit-and-run incident in 2015.
Prosecutors argue that although Duane “Keefe D” Davis did not fire the gun that killed Tupac Shakur, they suspect he orchestrated the 1996 assault on the iconic West Coast rapper. During the attack, Knight was injured, while Tupac was hit four times and died from his injuries six days later on September 13.
In 2023, Davis, now 63, pleaded not guilty following his arrest. As a former leader of the Crips gang, he continues to assert his innocence, insisting he was not even in Nevada at the time of Tupac’s shooting.
