Las Vegas police were called to a reported shooting near the courthouse where Duane “Keffe D” Davis remains on trial over allegations that he helped orchestrate the killing of rap legend Tupac Shakur.
Officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department responded to the 500 block of Casino Center Boulevard at about 1 p.m. Tuesday after dispatchers were told gunshots had been heard inside a nearby Starbucks, KLAS reports.
When police arrived, however, they did not find any victims at the scene.
The report of gunfire came as members of Shakur’s family were leaving the courthouse, according to PEOPLE.
Despite the police response outside, the murder trial proceeded as planned.
Prosecutors allege that Davis, 63, arranged the attack as retaliation after members of Shakur’s entourage assaulted his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand several hours earlier following a Mike Tyson fight.
Authorities claim Davis provided the gun and helped set the fatal shooting in motion, though they do not allege that he was the person who fired the shots that killed the 25-year-old hip-hop icon.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. If convicted, he could face life in prison.
His lawyers have hit back at the prosecution’s explosive version of events, branding its case ‘fiction’ and insisting there was no reliable evidence proving Davis was responsible.
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis has been accused of plotting the murder of Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur (pictured in 1996), was shot dead in a drive-by that year, when he was aged 25
Police responded to a Starbucks near the courthouse on Tuesday after receiving a call about shots fired at around 1pm
Police did not interrupt the court proceedings and the trial continued as scheduled
As the trial continued into its second day on Tuesday, jurors were shown the casino’s surveillance footage of the alleged fight between members of Shakur’s posse and Anderson.
It showed a group of people beating and kicking someone on the ground before Shakur and his entourage raced through the building on September 7, 1996.
The footage then showed security officers and police arriving at the scene and speaking to Anderson, who could be seen wearing a Miami Dolphins jersey.
Kenneth Rios, a security guard who was working patrol at the casino that night, testified on Tuesday that he asked Anderson whether he needed medical assistance and he refused.
‘He was fine,’ Rios testified. ‘He told me basically that a couple of guys that he didn’t know jumped him…I asked him if he wanted to file a report, he said no.’
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But just a few hours later Shakur, riding in a black BMW with hip hop mogul Marion ‘Suge’ Knight was gunned down by someone in a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and two other men inside.
William Heidmeyer, a former security guard at the nearby Maxim Hotel, watched in horror from the third floor of a parking garage as the shooting unfolded.
He said he saw a white Dodge in front of a black BMW and multiple cars behind it, with people standing all around the vehicles – including a young black man holding a pistol.
Shakur was shot dead inside a black BMW on the night of September 7, 1996
An illustration is displayed during the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas
Heidmeyer then described the alleged shooter as ‘very young’ and ‘well dressed.’
‘He was wearing a very bright white three-quarter-sleeved shirt, black pants and a black dress vest,’ the security guard recounted in court.
Dean O’Kelley, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer, also testified how he found bullet cartridges on the street at the intersection of Koval Lane and Flamingo Road.
The officers placed cones on top of cartridges to protect them, but some had already been run over by traffic, he said.
When O’Kelley was then handed an envelope with seven flattened cartridge cases in court, several appeared to have been damaged and misshapen.
‘This is actually the closest I’ve seen them,’ the former cop then remarked, later testifying that the bullet cases suggested that the weapon used was a Glock.
Dean O’Kelley, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer, examined the spent shell casings as he testified in court on Tuesday
Jurors were also shown Shakur’s graphic autopsy photos as a forensic pathologist detailed his fatal injuries.
Dr Lisa Gavin described how one of three bullets traveled through Shakur’s chest, including through a lung, causing it to collapse and bleed. Doctors then removed the damaged lung in a desperate effort to save his life, she said.
The other bullets damaged his intestines and other body parts.
Most of Tupac’s family members left the courtroom when the pictures were shown.
It was just moments after they left in a vehicle that six police officers were seen running down the street as scores of other officers descended on downtown Las Vegas, responding to reports of gunfire.
Yet the trial continued as scheduled, with two other witnesses testifying about the events leading up to Shakur’s murder.
The trial is expected to last a month, during which jurors will hear from more than 200 witnesses – including members of Knight and Shakur’s family.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
