Imprisoned rapper and Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight told TMZ in a phone interview that he does not think police have the right suspects in the previously cold 1996 Tupac Shakur killing case, and that if asked, he will not testify.
"I'm not going to get on the stand and testify … 1,000% I wouldn't go," the New York Post reported Knight telling TMZ in the interview. "I wouldn't testify, none of that s***. At the end of the day … free Keefe D."
After laying dormant for over 27 years, police recently arrested Duane "Keefe D" Davis, 60, in Las Vegas and charged him in the slaying.
Shakur was riding in a BMW with Knight in Las Vegas the night of Sept. 7, 1996, when two men in a Cadillac drove up to them and fired shots into the vehicle, hitting Shakur, who died at a hospital six days later, the Associated Press reported.
"Duane Davis was the shot caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime," Las Vegas police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson said in the report after Davis was indicted by a grand jury and arrested, "and he orchestrated the plan that was carried out."
Although identified early in the investigation as one of four possible suspects in the case, and is not considered to be the gunman, Nevada law allows a murder charge if you help in the commission of the crime, the report said.
"This is no doubt a pivotal moment. The silence of the past 27 years surrounding this case has spoken loudly in our community," Sekyiwa "Set" Shakur, the rapper's sister, said in a statement. "It's important to me that the world, the country, the justice system, and our people acknowledge the gravity of the passing of this man, my brother, my mother's son, my father's son."
Knight, who is in prison himself for 28 years on a manslaughter conviction, said he and Shakur are the only two people who know who the people in the other car were, and neither will tell what happened that night.
"There was only two people in the car, and 'Pac's not going to be able to tell the story," he said in the interview. "I ain't going to tell the story."
He said that even if Davis was involved, he didn't want to see him arrested or imprisoned.
"And whatever the circumstances, if he did have involvement, or if he didn't have involvement in anything … I wouldn't wish someone going to prison on my worst enemy," Knight said.
Charles Kim ✉
Charles Kim, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years in reporting on news and politics.
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