Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in an act of revenge ordered by a gang leader, a prosecutor has told jurors, as one of the United States’ most anticipated trials gets under way in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Prosecutor Binu Palal told jurors that former street gang leader “Keefe D” masterminded the 1996 drive-by shooting of famed hip-hop star Tupac Shakur in retribution for the beating of his nephew during opening statements in the long-unsolved murder trial.

Duane Davis, 63, is facing charges for allegedly coordinating the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur, known by the stage name 2Pac, near the Las Vegas Strip area in Paradise, Nevada, some three decades ago. Prosecutors allege Davis was the “on-the-ground, on-site commander of the effort to kill Tupac”.

The 25-year-old California-based rapper quickly became an icon of the hip-hop genre during a short but glittering career in the 1990s, releasing several Billboard-topping albums during his lifetime and posthumously.

Davis was charged in Nevada’s Clark County on Monday with a single count of murder using a deadly weapon and with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He has pleaded not guilty.

The trial before Judge Carli Kierny is expected to last up to six weeks. The jury was selected last week. The trial may feature testimony from Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight, a former rap mogul who was with Shakur the night he was slain and is now serving a 28-year prison sentence on an unrelated voluntary manslaughter conviction.

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“You will learn that when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooters were armed and ready to execute their plan. And remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself,” prosecutor Palal told the jurors in a downtown Las Vegas courthouse, referring to recent public statements by Davis that revived the long-stalled inquiry.

US prosecutors are aiming to prove it was Davis who orchestrated Tupac’s killing by supplying the gun, but they are not alleging he pulled the trigger.

Police said after the 2023 arrest of Davis that he had been a longtime suspect in the killing but that investigators had lacked sufficient admissible evidence to charge him until he began self-implicating via a series of public statements.

Defence lawyer Michael Sandt said that after 30 ⁠years, investigators still have very little evidence to prove their case.

“At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, is what they are saying truth or fiction?” Sandt told the jury.

Authorities described Davis as the “shot caller” of a frantic plot to avenge the beating of his nephew by Shakur and members of the rapper’s entourage inside the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on the night of September 7, 1996.

The violent clash at ⁠the casino allegedly sprang from hostility between two Los Angeles-area street gangs — the South Side Compton Crips, of which Davis was the self-described leader, and Mob Piru, which police say was associated with Knight and Death Row Records. They were in Las Vegas to see a world heavyweight title boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. The height of the gangs’ operations began at the close of hip-hop’s traditional “Golden Age” in the mid 1990s.

Davis allegedly obtained the murder weapon and handed it off to two other men in the rear seat of a white Cadillac as they rode around looking for Knight and Shakur’s car following the brawl.

Shots were fired when Davis and the others caught up with Knight and Shakur’s vehicle. Shakur ⁠was struck four times and died in a hospital six days later. Knight, who had been driving, suffered a minor wound from a bullet fragment that grazed his head.

Shakur’s death amplified the violent reputation of 1990s “gangsta” rap lyrics and culture, and intensified the already bitter rivalry between East Coast and West Coast artists. His death became a watershed moment in rap history.

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