Key Witness Testifies About Night Tupac Shakur Was Shot, Refuses to Identify Suspects

A former gang member who worked "under the table" as security for Suge Knight testified Tuesday that he was at Knight’s Las Vegas nightclub, Club 662, when he learned Tupac Shakur and Knight had been injured in a drive-by shooting on Sept. 7, 1996. James "Mob James" McDonald, a member of the Mob Piru Bloods, said he was compelled to testify by a court order and grew visibly frustrated when defense attorney Michael Sanft pressed him for details about who was present that night.

"Are you sure you want me to answer that? I don’t want to send him to prison, even though we don’t like each other," McDonald told the jury, referring to Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the defendant charged with orchestrating the murder.

McDonald said he could only speak in general terms about the ensuing gang conflict between the Mob Piru Bloods and the South Side Compton Crips, of which Davis was a high-ranking member. He declined to identify specific individuals, stating, "I know everybody that was there," but then refused to answer further questions.

The prosecution also called Reggie Wright Jr., who served as Knight’s head of security, to corroborate McDonald’s presence at the club. Wright identified McDonald’s brother, Alton "Buntry" McDonald, as part of Shakur’s entourage that attended a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand earlier that evening, and named another security guard, Roger "Neckbone" Williams, as involved in a later altercation.

Duane Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge with use of a deadly weapon and has been in custody since his September 2023 arrest. Prosecutors allege he procured the .40-caliber Glock used in the attack and rode in the front passenger seat of the white Cadillac from which Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson allegedly fired the fatal shots. The district attorney presented excerpts from a 2008 recorded interview in which Davis described handing off the gun after the vehicle made a U-turn.

Defense counsel Sanft challenged the credibility of that interview, arguing it was fabricated for personal gain and noting that investigators had not produced independent evidence placing Davis at the MGM Grand that night. He also questioned why authorities had not charged Davis after the 2008 interview.

The trial’s early testimony also included former Las Vegas police officer Garry Dale, who said Shakur refused to identify his shooter, and former homicide detective Brent Becker, who testified that investigators quickly identified Anderson as a suspect from video of the MGM Grand fight.