An eyewitness testified that ‘all hell broke loose’ during the 1996 shooting of Tupac Shakur as Duane Davis’s murder trial opened in Las Vegas.
The long awaited murder trial over the 1996 drive by shooting of rap icon Tupac Shakur officially began in a Las Vegas courtroom on Monday, August 17, 2026.
The first day of testimony featured dramatic accounts from an eyewitness who described the panic during the tragic shooting that took the twenty five year old musician’s life nearly thirty years ago.
Former street gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis sat in the courtroom facing murder charges as government lawyers argued that he planned and directed the deadly attack.
The legal proceedings opened in Nevada, where prosecutors presented their main arguments to a newly selected jury of six men and ten women.
Sixty three year old Davis has pleaded not guilty to the charges, but prosecutors pointed to his own past recorded interviews and published books as key evidence.
According to government lawyers, Davis served as the main commander on the ground who provided the gun and ordered the shooting in payback after Tupac’s entourage beat his nephew following a boxing match at a local hotel.
Witnesses who were near the scene on the night of September 7, 1996, took the witness stand to share what they saw and heard on the streets of Las Vegas.
A woman named Ingrid Stokes, who was driving in a nearby car going to the same nightclub as Tupac, recalled the sudden loud noises and total confusion that broke out when bullets hit the vehicle.
Describing the scary moment on the street, Stokes told the court, “We heard the gunshots … all hell broke loose”. She explained that everyone in the area panicked as cars scrambled to get away from the gunfire.
In addition to eyewitnesses, former police officers also testified about their early interactions with Tupac and his team immediately after the shooting.
A former officer recounted riding in the ambulance with the injured rapper and asking him who fired the shots. However, the officer noted that Tupac refused to name his attackers, telling him, “No, we’ll take care of it”.
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Defense lawyers representing Davis argued that the government has very little physical proof after thirty years and urged the jury to question the reliability of the claims.
The defense attorney asserted that Davis’s past comments were made up or exaggerated to make money and gain fame. Pointing out the lack of direct physical evidence from the crime scene, defense lawyer Michael Sanft told the jury, “At the end of the day you have to ask yourself: is what they are saying truth or fiction?”
The high profile murder trial is expected to last about a month as more witnesses, medical experts, and former investigators take the stand. For millions of music fans around the world, the courtroom proceedings represent the closest step yet toward closing a thirty year mystery in hip hop history.
