Marion “Suge” Knight will not testify against Duane “Keefe D” Davis when he is tried for his alleged part in Tupac Shakur’s death.
While speaking with TMZ on Monday, the Death Row Records founder expressed his surprise at the recent turn of events and, as he did immediately following the 1996 drive-by shooting, stated that he would not cooperate with the authorities.
Despite being rival gang members and struck by one of the bullets in the incident, Knight said he takes no pleasure in Keefe D being behind bars.
“I didn’t think Keefe D would ever get arrested, nor do I want to see him get arrested,” Knight said. “First and foremost, me and Keefe D played on the same Pop Warner football team. And whatever the circumstances — if he had an involvement with anything, if he didn’t have an involvement with anything, I wouldn’t wish somebody going to prison on my worst enemy,” he continued.
Knight also doubted the commonly accepted theory that Davis’ nephew and fellow South Side Compton Crip Orlando Anderson pulled the trigger.
“I never had anything bad to say about Orlando because…he wasn’t the shooter,” Knight said.
When the conversation turned to the possibility of sharing his story from the driver’s seat of the ambushed vehicle with the prosecution, the Mob Piru affiliate instantly shot down the notion.
“I wouldn’t go. I wouldn’t testify. None of that ****,” he concluded.
According to a report from Las Vegas station KLAS, a witness told the grand jury that Deandre “Big Dre” Smith fired the fatal shots. Smith died of a heart attack in 2004.
Knight, who, besides Keefe D, is the only person still alive from both vehicles, is currently serving a 28-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter in an unrelated incident.