Retired cop recalls what Tupac Shakur told him from back of ambulance after shooting in newly heard testimony
A retired Las Vegas cop has recalled what Tupac Shakur told him after he jumped into the back of an ambulance and urged the rapper to reveal who had shot him.
A trial for the September 1996 killing of Shakur got underway on Monday (17 August), with Duane 'Keffe D' Davis facing one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the rapper’s death.
Davis has pleaded not guilty, but if convicted faces life in prison.
Today, opening statements were made and the court heard from the first witnesses in the trial, which is expected to run for weeks.
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One of those called to testify was retired Las Vegas police officer Garry Dale, who told the court he had stopped a car that Shakur was in on the night of the shooting.
Dale said the car was pulled over as it didn’t have a licence plate, but he and his fellow officer decided to let the two occupants of the car - Shakur and Marion ‘Suge’ Knight - go with a warning.
Around 10 minutes later, the two officers responded to a shooting and found Shakur being hauled out of the car by emergency responders.
He told the court that Knight had also been grazed by bullets in the shooting, but had told first responders to take care of Shakur.
Once Shakur was in the ambulance, Dale hopped into the back and said he was able to communicate while on the way to the hospital.
Dale said that he attempted to get him to reveal who had shot him, but said the rapper told him something like ‘no, we’ll take care of it’, Stuff reports.
Another witness, Ingrid Stokes, gave evidence that she and her friends were heading home from Las Vegas when they encountered Shakur and Knight, who was friends with a woman in Stokes’ group.
Knight invited them to a nightclub, she said, and they decided to meet them there.
The car Stokes was a passenger in was one lane over and a car length ahead of Knight’s vehicle, when they heard gunshots while stopped at an intersection, she said.
Stokes said they feared more gunfire and drove away, almost hitting a white four-door vehicle in the process.
When they returned to the scene, police treated them like suspects, she said, and made them sit on the sidewalks. She was scared to talk about the case, worried about poor treatment from law enforcement and the potential for retribution from the unknown shooter.
“Snitches get stitches,” she said.
The gunfire that killed Shakur came from a white Cadillac that Davis was riding in with three others, all of whom have since died.
The long-unsolved drive-by shooting gripped the hip-hop community, partly because no-one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023.
Shakur is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, despite dying at 25.
He was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
In recent years, he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, had a street in Oakland named in his honour and inspired a character in the upcoming video game Stranger Than Heaven.
Claire Reid