E.D.I. Mean testified that Tupac warned him seconds before police arrived with shotguns during the 1996 Las Vegas shooting that killed the rap legend.
E.D.I. Mean, the Outlawz founder and childhood friend of Tupac Shakur, delivered pivotal testimony Tuesday (August 25) in the murder trial of Duane “Keefe D” Davis, recounting the terrifying moments after the legendary rapper was shot on the Las Vegas Strip 30 years ago.
E.D.I. Mean said he was traveling in a car directly behind the BMW carrying Tupac and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight when a light-coloured Cadillac pulled alongside, and someone opened fire. He testified he saw an arm and the gun attached to it, but couldn’t make out the faces of the people inside the Cadillac.
“We were at a light. Mr. Shakur and Suge Knight was talking to some young ladies. We couldn’t hear what they was talking about. When those young ladies pulled off, another car pulled up and started shooting at Mr. Shakur and Mr. Knight. The shots came from inside the vehicle. It was from the back seat. The arm and the gun attached to that arm. From my vantage point, they appeared to be African American.”
E.D.I. said he and others in his vehicle tried to get out and check on Tupac, but Knight made a U-turn and drove off. They followed. At another intersection, Knight stopped again, and E.D.I. Mean approached the BMW to see how he was doing.
That’s when Tupac delivered the warning that now sits at the center of the trial’s narrative. The testimony came during the second week of the high-profile trial in Las Vegas. Prosecutors have charged Davis, 63, with orchestrating the 1996 shooting in retaliation for an earlier altercation between Tupac’s crew and Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, at the MGM Grand that same night.
The defense also questioned Ladd about a “money due bill” from the Monte Carlo Casino listed on a May 1997 property return. Ladd could not say from the document when the bill originated or to whom it was addressed. The defense brought up other Southside Compton Crips who had at some point been considered potentially connected to the Shakur investigation.
Sanft questioned Ladd about how Terrence Brown, DeAndre Smith and Orlando Anderson later died. Those are the other three men suspected of being in the suspect car with Davis the night of the shooting. Ladd testified Brown died during a robbery at a marijuana dispensary and Smith died from medical complications. He did not connect either death to retaliation for Shakur. Ladd testified Anderson was killed during a confrontation involving a drug debt. According to Ladd, Anderson initiated the confrontation and a shootout followed at a car wash. The defense established that the people involved were Crips and characterized the dispute as involving money and drugs rather than Blood-versus-Crip retaliation.