Mar 3, 1997378 words · 2 min
Two Witnesses, Two Versions: Dispute Over Tupac's Entourage
March 1997: Frank Alexander and E.D.I. Mean want to identify the shooters. Las Vegas police confront them with their statements from the night of the crime.
Original: “Tupac witnesses’ stories conflicting” · Las Vegas Sun · Cathy Scott · March 3, 1997
In late February 1997, two men from Tupac’s convoy told the Los Angeles Times they could identify the shooters-yet the police had never questioned them. They were Frank Alexander, Tupac’s bodyguard and a former Orange County sheriff’s reservist, and Malcolm Greenidge, alias E.D.I. Mean of the Outlawz. Both sat in the car directly behind Tupac; Alexander was driving. Cathy Scott reached out to the other side for the Las Vegas Sun.
“Absolutely Not” and “Nope”: The Transcripts from the Night of the Murder
Sergeant Kevin Manning of the Metro Police explained that homicide detectives had since left messages for both men; that could be a breakthrough. At the same time, he confronted them with their statements from the night of the crime. When asked whether he could identify the shooters, Alexander had said back then: “Absolutely not.” Greenidge: “Nope.” The transcripts ran 13 and 11 pages. Manning also wondered about the dual accusation that police had harassed them while at the same time never contacting them: “So which is it?”
Lieutenant Wayne Petersen pointed out the problem in court: any defense attorney would ask why their memory was better after six months than on the night itself. The third occupant of the car could no longer contribute anything anyway: Yafeu Fula (Yaki Kadafi) had been shot dead in New Jersey in November 1996.
Eight Photo Lineups with No Result
The meeting took place and produced nothing: on March 19, 1997, Alexander viewed eight photo lineups and recognized no one; Greenidge refused to look at the pictures. The mutual accusations between Tupac’s circle and the Las Vegas police shaped the case for decades.
A Bodyguard’s Book and a Late Verdict
Frank Alexander later wrote Got Your Back, a book about his time as Tupac’s bodyguard. E.D.I. Mean stayed with the Outlawz. Convicted on August 31, 2026 (not final, as of October 2026) was Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who by his own account was himself in the Cadillac from which the shots were fired.
Corrections to the archived text: The witness’s name is Greenidge, not “Greenidge”; the Outlaw was Yafeu Fula, not “Tufau Fula”; Tupac was hit four times, not three.