Authorities in Las Vegas swiftly responded to reports of gunfire erupting near the courthouse where Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis is standing trial, accused of orchestrating the murder of the legendary rapper Tupac Shakur.
Around 1 p.m. on Tuesday, officers from the local Metro police department scrambled to the 500 block of Casino Center Boulevard. The urgent dispatch followed reports of gunshots echoing from within a Starbucks in the area, as detailed by KLAS News.
Upon their arrival, police officers were met with a surprising calm—there were no victims to be found.
The unsettling incident unfolded as family members of Tupac Shakur exited the courthouse, as reported by PEOPLE.
Despite the chaos, the murder trial pressed on without interruption.
Prosecutors claim Davis, 63, planned the attack to avenge Shakur’s entourage attacking his nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, a few hours earlier at the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson fight.
Davis then allegedly supplied the weapon and set in motion the shooting that killed the 25-year-old hip-hop icon, but did not pull the trigger.
He has pleaded not guilty to murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang and faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars if convicted.
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.’
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.
Jurors were also shown Shakur’s graphic autopsy photos as a forensic pathologist detailed his fatal injuries and the extensive efforts doctors made to save his life.
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.
Dean O’Kelley, a former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer, examined the spent shell casings as he testified in court on Tuesday
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.