Tupac’s convicted killer may never have pulled the trigger - here’s what happened that night

Five days remain until the three-decade mark of Tupac Shakur's shootout case near East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Nevada, and still nobody has been convicted apart from Duane Davis. BBC recently reported that the jury declared Duane guilty of murdering the rap superstar with a deadly weapon in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996.

During the trial, the court listened to a 2008 police interview record where he admitted that he was inside the car from which the shots were fired but denied firing the bullets that killed Shakur.

The prosecutor argued that Duane did not pull the trigger by himself, but he gave the order for the attack and supplied the gun that his nephew Orlando Anderson used to shoot. His nephew was killed in a separate shooting in 1998 after denying any role in Shakur's murder.

Prosecutors further argued that Duane had arranged the shootout as revenge after Orlando Anderson got into a fight with Shakur and his group in Las Vegas only a few hours earlier.

Shakur's killing took place during a period of fierce rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast rap scenes and in the middle of violent clashes between the Bloods and Crips gangs.

Continue reading more about the story of Tupac Shakur.

What happened that night?

July, 1996

According to Fox 5 KVVU-TV, Orlando and several members of the South Side Compton Crips tried to rob a member of the rival Mob Piru gang, Trevon Lane, and an associate of Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight inside a Foot Locker store at a mall in Lakewood, California.

September 7, 1996: The night Tupac was shot

On this date, Mike Tyson defeated Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. After the match, Trevon saw Orlando near the hotel elevators. Tupac asked Anderson whether he was from the South and then punched him in the face and knocked him down.

The video recordings of the MGM Grand surveillance camera revealed that members of Shakur and Knight’s entourage joined in the assault, and soon after, security guards broke up the fight.

Tupac went back to his room at the Luxor and told his girlfriend about the incident. Then he changed his clothes and left in a BMW with Knight to perform at a charity concert at Knight’s club on Flamingo Road.

Around 11 p.m., Las Vegas police bike patrol officers stopped their car for the loud music and missing license plates. After searching, they found that the plates were in the trunk, and soon after, they were released without a citation.

Ten minutes later, the rapper spoke to two women in another car and invited them to his show while waiting at a red light at Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.

Five minutes later, a white Cadillac stopped beside their car, and someone from the backseat fired multiple shots from a .40 S&W Glock 22. Shakur was hit twice in his chest and then in his arm and thigh.

One of the bullets pierced his right lung. However, Knight suffered a minor head injury, and so managed to drive the car about a mile to Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon.

When the BMW reached there, the police stopped them again and called paramedics. Both of them were taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. Sources revealed that no attackers came to the hospital.

Shakur told staff that he was dying when he was carried into the emergency room. He was heavily sedated, placed on life support, and eventually put into a medically induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of bed.

September 8, 1996

The day after the shootout, Knight was discharged from the hospital but remained silent. After three days, he finally spoke to investigators and revealed that he heard gunshots but saw nothing.

September 13, 1996

Tupac died from cardiac arrest after doctors removed his right lung. Medical staff tried to revive him but could not stop the bleeding. His mother Afeni chose to end his medical treatment, and he was officially pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m.

How was Duane Davis convicted?

1997

The lead investigator of Tupac's murder case once said that his murder might never be solved. The rapper's mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Orlando Anderson as he was involved in the shootout.

May 29, 1998

Orlando was killed in a gang-related shooting in Compton, California. A Compton Gang Unit officer stated that Anderson’s death came from a dispute over drug money with a rival gang and was not connected to the Shakur case.

2018

Fox 5 KVVU-TV mentioned that a Crips gang leader, Duane Davis, was shown in a 2018 documentary and admitted that he was inside the Cadillac when Tupac and Suge were shot. However, Davis said that he was in the front seat while the shootout was going on. He refused to reveal who fired the shots from the backseat. He said that he was bound by a "street code."

2019

Duane published a book titled Compton Street Legend, where he wrote that on the night of the killing he was inside the Cadillac with Shakur’s murderer and confessed that the gunfire came from the backseat of the car.

2023

On July 18, the Las Vegas Police Department conducted a search warrant at a home in Henderson. Later, the police found that the home belonged to Duane's wife. On September 29, 2023, Duane was arrested for the murder of Tupac Shakur.

Duane appeared for the first time in Clark County Justice Court on October 4. The hearing ended quickly after he told the court that he was still in the process of finding legal representation.

The first day of the trial: August 17, 2026

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal began the trial by addressing the fight at the MGM and the shooting that followed. They pointed to the four individuals who were allegedly inside the white Cadillac.

The prosecution’s case leaned heavily on Davis’s own words from his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend. Palal argued that even though Duane did not pull the trigger, he planned the shooting.

The trial ends on August 31, 2026

The jury found Duane guilty of first‑degree murder in Tupac's case. During closing arguments, prosecutors described Davis as a shot caller in the South Side Compton Crips and said that he went hunting for Tupac. Duane's sentencing was scheduled for October 13 this year, and he was ordered to remain in custody without bond.

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