A witness to the shooting that fatally wounded Tupac Shakur testified Tuesday about what he saw that night 30 years ago.
Malcolm Greenidge, a childhood friend of Shakur’s, said he and the rapper had come to Las Vegas the weekend of Sept. 7, 1996, to see the Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand.
He was in a car behind the car that Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight were traveling in, on the way to a nightclub, when a light-colored Cadillac pulled up next to Shakur and Knight and someone began shooting at them, he testified.
Greenidge said he saw an “arm and the gun attached to that arm.” He could not see the faces of the people in the Cadillac, but said the shooter appeared to be Black. The shots came from the back seat, he said.
“I’m horrified,” he said, describing his reaction at the time. He added: “We started to get out of the car to go check on Tupac.”
But Greenidge said he and others in his vehicle did not reach Shakur because Knight made a U-turn and drove off. They followed, Greenidge said.
At another intersection, Knight stopped and again, Greenidge tried to check on Shakur.
“When we approached the car, Mr. Shakur said to me: ‘Get on the ground, they’re going to shoot you,’” he recalled. “And when I turned around, there was a shotgun in my face,” held by a police officer.
The testimony came in the murder trial of Duane Davis, 63, the only person prosecuted in connection with the slaying of Shakur, who died Sept. 13, 1996, days after the shooting.
Prosecutors have said Davis was the “shot-caller” who came up with the plan to exact revenge on the rapper and Knight in retaliation for an attack by Shakur and his entourage against Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier that night at the MGM Grand.
Davis is accused of being a leader in the South Side Compton Crips during the 1990s.
According to prosecutors, the Bloods-associated Mob Piru gang had ties to Death Row Records and the South Side Crips were associated with Bad Boy Records, a label owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
