Tupac murder trial opens 30 years on

The shooting itself unfolded after Tupac and Death Row Records chief Suge Knight attended a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand. Surveillance footage later showed Tupac and members of his group attacking Orlando Anderson, whom police described as an alleged member of the South Side Compton Crips. Roughly three hours later, while Tupac was riding in the passenger seat of Knight’s BMW, a white Cadillac pulled alongside the vehicle and opened fire. Anderson was never charged, denied involvement, and was later killed in an unrelated shooting in 1998.

For years, Las Vegas police said the case stalled because witnesses would not cooperate, evidence was scarce, and many people connected to the violence were themselves killed. Investigators also said the street code of silence made the case harder to crack. The mystery deepened after another killing in rap’s orbit: months later, the Notorious B.I.G., also known as Biggie Smalls, was killed in a Los Angeles drive-by shooting. That case remains unsolved as well. In the mid-2000s, Los Angeles police reopened parts of the investigation and spoke with Davis, who said he had information about Tupac’s killing in exchange for not being charged at the time.

Prosecutors say Davis broke that understanding by publicly discussing the case and writing about it. They allege he was not just a witness but the person who planned the shooting, supplied the weapon, and acted to further gang crime. They have also said the killing was retaliation for the beating of Anderson, identified as Davis’s nephew, earlier that night. Davis has publicly claimed that Sean “Diddy” Combs once offered him $1 million to kill Tupac and Knight, but Combs has repeatedly denied any role in Tupac’s death.

The state has lined up more than 200 potential witnesses, including members of Tupac’s family, former Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, and former Los Angeles police Detective Greg Kading. Suge Knight is also named on the witness list, though it is unclear whether he will testify. One attorney involved in the case said the unusual thing about the trial is that much of the evidence against Davis comes from Davis himself. For American readers, the trial matters because it may finally put hard facts around a murder that shaped music, crime culture, and public memory for a generation.