A former gang member who says he worked “under the table” security for Suge Knight during Death Row Records ‘ heyday testified Tuesday he knew “everybody that was there” the night Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in Las Vegas — but he’s not naming names.
Taking the witness stand on the second day of Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ murder trial in Clark County, Nevada, James “Mob James” McDonald told jurors he was working at Knight’s Vegas nightclub, Club 662, when he learned Shakur and Knight had been wounded in a drive-by shooting on Sept. 7, 1996.
McDonald, a member of the Mob Piru Bloods, made it clear he was testifying against his will under a court order. He grew visibly exasperated when Davis’ defense lawyer, Michael Sanft, pressed him on cross-examination about what he heard in the aftermath of the shooting.
“Are you sure you want me to answer that?” McDonald replied, according to the trial livestream from CourtTV . “I don’t want to send him to prison, even though we don’t like each other,” he said, referring to Davis. “You’re asking me questions that can hurt him. … You’re asking something that’s gonna hurt this dude.”
McDonald said he was only willing to speak generally about how, after the shooting, a “gang war” erupted between the Mob Piru Bloods, affiliated with Knight, and the South Side Compton Crips, of which Davis was a high-ranking member.
“Do you know who it was that was there?” Sanft pressed, referring to alleged eyewitnesses who eventually traveled back to Compton.
“I know everybody that was there,” McDonald shot back. When Sanft again asked him to get specific, McDonald appeared stunned and seemed to address Davis, seated in a black suit and tie at the defense table
“Talk to your lawyer, man. This dude is tripping,” McDonald said. “I’m not gonna explain that. I can’t answer that.”
McDonald said he left gang life and is now raising his grandchildren. He said he only agreed to testify because he didn’t want to go on the run to avoid his subpoena. After the shooting, he said, “it wasn’t a problem for people to find out what happened. No problem at all.” He said Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, whom prosecutors allege fired the shots that killed Shakur as Davis allegedly watched from the front seat, quickly became a target for retaliation. (Prosecutors claim Davis, who is Anderson’s uncle, procured the weapon and directed the shooting.) Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century
“When we got back to Compton, it was a gang war. People were getting hurt. People were looking for certain individuals,” he said. “Orlando, and certain other people, were being sought, because people wanted to kill them.”
After McDonald was excused, Knight’s official head of security at the time, Reggie Wright Jr., took the witness stand and said he also was at Club 662 the night of the shooting. He identified McDonald’s brother, Alton “Buntry” McDonald, as one of the members of Shakur’s and Knight’s entourage who was present when the men attended a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand earlier…