The shooting that claimed Tupac Shakur’s life happened so suddenly that Ingrid Stokes was still in the middle of switching seats with a friend when the first gunshots erupted. Taking the stand Monday in Duane “Keefe D” Davis’ murder trial, Stokes gave jurors a firsthand account of the chaos that unfolded on the Las Vegas Strip, recalling how her group nearly crashed into a white four-door vehicle while trying to flee the scene.
Court reporter Meghann Cuniff shared details of Stokes’ testimony after attending the proceedings. According to Stokes, she was riding in a convertible with three friends on September 7, 1996, when they came across Tupac and Suge Knight. One of the women in the group knew Knight, and they planned to meet up with him and Tupac at Club 662. As they traveled near Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, their convertible eventually pulled ahead of Knight’s BMW.
Stokes said she and another woman were in the process of switching positions in the convertible so she could take over the wheel when the shooting suddenly began. “Me and Shalane were literally head down taking our seatbelts off when we heard the gunshots,” Stokes testified. “And that was when all hell broke loose.”
She recalled screaming and pulling her friend down as the woman froze in the driver’s seat. Stokes said she couldn’t remember the exact number of shots fired, as her only concern was getting everyone away from the gunfire. “I know I put the car in drive, and I told them, ‘Get the hell out of there and drive,’” she testified. “And so, I may have even grabbed the wheel.”
As they tried to escape, the group came dangerously close to another vehicle. Stokes told prosecutors that a white four-door car was sitting in the turning lane and that their convertible nearly crashed into it while fleeing. Investigators also received witness accounts describing a white Cadillac leaving the scene, with prosecutors now alleging that Davis was inside that vehicle alongside three other men.
However, Stokes was unable to tell the jurors who was inside the white car she saw. Her testimony therefore does not identify Davis or determine who fired the shots at Tupac. Instead, it provides prosecutors with another eyewitness account placing a white four-door vehicle near the BMW when the shooting occurred. Former Las Vegas homicide detective Brent Becker testified that investigators received similar descriptions in 1996 but were unable to get a surviving witness to identify either the occupants of the vehicle or the shooter.
Stokes and her friends later returned to the scene, where she said police made them sit on the sidewalk and initially treated them as suspects. She also expressed concerns about being publicly seen cooperating with investigators, telling the court, “Snitches get stitches.”
Nearly three decades later, the defense questioned how much Stokes could still accurately remember from that night. Attorney Michael Sanft asked her about conversations with her friend and a documentary appearance she made years after Tupac’s murder. Stokes acknowledged that she and her friends did not often revisit the events of that night.
