Tupac trial jurors hear Orlando Anderson named as shooter
Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down off the Las Vegas Strip, jurors in Duane Davis's murder trial are hearing recorded police interviews in which Davis identifies his nephew, Orlando Anderson, as the man who fired the fatal shots into Shakur's car on Sept. 7, 1996. Prosecutors say the drive-by was revenge for Anderson's beating hours earlier at the MGM Grand.
Key Takeaways
- Jurors heard a 2008 recording in which Davis said Orlando Anderson leaned out a car window and opened fire on Shakur and Marion "Suge" Knight.
- Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated the shooting but did not pull the trigger himself.
- A task force investigating Biggie Smalls's 1997 killing redirected focus to Shakur after Davis volunteered, "we did the other one."
- Neither Shakur's nor Biggie Smalls's killing has yet led to a conviction despite decades of notoriety.
What happened the night Tupac Shakur was killed?
Shakur was shot during a drive-by near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996. He was riding with Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records, the label Shakur was closely affiliated with.
Earlier that night, after a Mike Tyson fight, Shakur's entourage attacked Anderson at the MGM Grand. Prosecutors say the assault spurred Davis and his crew to hunt for Shakur and Knight.
In a 2008 recorded interview played in court Thursday, Davis said his group spotted fans yelling "Tupac!" and made a U-turn toward the rapper's car. Davis handed a gun to Deandre Smith in the back seat, but because the cars aligned on Knight's side, he told investigators Anderson "leaned over on the window, he rolled down the window, popped."
How did the Biggie Smalls probe break the Tupac case?
Less than a year after Shakur's death, Christopher Wallace, known as Biggie Smalls, was killed in a drive-by outside the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. Former LAPD detective Daryn Dupree testified that a joint task force investigating Wallace's murder questioned Davis about a car resembling the one used in that shooting.
Investigators leveraged evidence that Davis sold PCP from his home, exposing him to a potential life sentence. While discussing Wallace's killing, Davis volunteered that "we did the other one," Dupree said — shifting focus to Shakur without being asked.
Prosecutors now argue Davis's 2019 memoir, "Compton Street Legend," and media appearances voided any proffer agreement protecting his statements. His defense attorney called those accounts fiction, according to the CNN report.
Why does Orlando Anderson sit at the center of the trial?
Anderson, Davis's nephew known as "Baby Lane," is the person multiple accounts identify as the shooter. Dupree testified that Smith hesitated to fire, so Anderson grabbed the gun and shot across Smith into Knight's car with a .40-caliber handgun.
Davis's recording and memoir tell a largely consistent story, though they differ on who instigated the shooting and how the gun reached the back seat. In his book, Davis wrote that Shakur reached beneath his seat before gunfire erupted; the police recording does not mention Shakur firing.
Why does Tupac Shakur's case still grip the rap world?
For all the notoriety surrounding both rapper killings, neither case has yet led to a conviction, the Los Angeles Times reported. Prosecutors framed the motive as revenge rooted in a war between Southside Crips-Burris Street and Mob Piru, a gang long associated with Death Row Records.
Prosecutors played hours of Davis's 2008 interview to jurors on Thursday and are expected to play additional recordings from 2009 as court continues. Explore related cases in our True Crime & Unsolved Mysteries hub.