James "Mob James" McDonald, a member of the Mob Piru Bloods who worked security for Suge Knight during Death Row Records' peak, testified Tuesday that he knew "everybody that was there" when Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996. However, McDonald refused to provide specific names during cross-examination.
McDonald, testifying under court order on the second day of the trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, said he learned of the shooting while working at Knight's Vegas nightclub, Club 662. When pressed by Davis' defense lawyer Michael Sanft to identify witnesses who left the scene, McDonald told the court he did not want to answer questions that could harm the defendant. "I don't want to send him to prison, even though we don't like each other," he said.
McDonald said that after the shooting, a gang conflict erupted between the Mob Piru Bloods, affiliated with Knight, and the South Side Compton Crips, of which Davis was a high-ranking member. He described how members of both groups "were being sought, because people wanted to kill them," naming Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson and others as targets for retaliation.
Prosecutors allege that Davis, 63, obtained a .40-caliber Glock and directed the attack, with Anderson firing the fatal shots from a white Cadillac. Davis has pleaded not guilty to murder with use of a deadly weapon. Prosecutors say Davis confessed to his role in a 2008 interview with authorities and later repeated details in public interviews and his 2019 memoir.
Reggie Wright Jr., who headed Knight's security at the time, also testified Tuesday and identified members of Shakur's and Knight's entourage who were present at the shooting scene and earlier at a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand, where Shakur fought with Anderson.
