Suspect arrested in Tupac Shakur killing from 1996

August 14, 2024

A man has been charged with murder in the fatal drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, a breakthrough in a long-unsolved case that has held the public’s interest ever since the legendary rapper was gunned down near the Las Vegas Strip in 1996.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis — a self-described former gang member who has publicly claimed to have witnessed the killing — was arrested by Las Vegas police early Friday, police officials confirmed in a news conference Friday afternoon. He had previously been indicted on a charge of murder with use of a deadly weapon by a Clark County grand jury, according to prosecutors. It is the first arrest police have made in the 27-year-old case.

“It has often been said, ‘justice delayed is justice denied.’ It’s a quote we hear often and for many, many years when talking about our legal system. But not in this case,” said Clark County district attorney Steve Wolfson. “Today, justice will be served in the murder of Tupac Shakur.”

At a court hearing earlier in the day, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said that police had known the outlines of Davis’s involvement in the killing for decades, but lacked “admissible evidence” to arrest Davis until he began giving interviews and writing about the incident several years ago.

DiGiacomo described the shooting as an act of revenge for a gang brawl, organized and led by Davis.

He said Davis had come to an MGM hotel in Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996, to watch Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon in a world heavyweight title bout. Accompanying Davis were members of his Compton, Calif., street gang, including his nephew, Orlando Anderson.

Tupac and his entourage were at the venue too, and attacked Anderson in a “giant beatdown” that night, the prosecutor said. He said they were angry because earlier, Anderson had tried to steal a chain from a member of a rival gang affiliated with Tupac’s music label.

After the fight, DiGiacomo said, Davis obtained a pistol and drove around the area with Anderson and other gang members to “hunt down Shakur,” who was supposed to perform at a nearby nightclub.

Tupac, 25, was shot multiple times when a Cadillac pulled up alongside a BMW he was riding in at a red light that night. He died of his wounds in a hospital a week later. The shooting also injured Marion “Suge” Knight, the head of Tupac’s label, who was in the vehicle with him.

In various interviews as well as his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” Davis said that he was in the Cadillac and was one of the last living witnesses to the attack, but stopped short of saying who pulled the trigger. Anderson, who was also in the car, died in a separate shooting two years after the incident.

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“Going to keep it for the code of the streets,” Davis said in a 2018 BET interview when he was asked who fired the shots. “It just came from the back seat, bro.”

At the time of his death, Tupac was world-famous for his chart-topping, politically-conscious tracks about systemic racism and inequality. He released his fourth studio album, “All Eyez on Me” to instant critical acclaim earlier the same year. It was posthumously nominated for “Best Rap Album” at the Grammy Awards the following year and is often ranked by critics as one of the greatest albums of all time.

His killing captured global attention for decades and prompted a slew of documentaries, investigations and conspiracy theories. But the criminal case appeared to grow cold decades ago.

A break in the case was announced two months ago, when Las Vegas police searched a Henderson, Nev., home linked to Davis’s wife. The warrant said officers had probable cause to believe the property might have documents showing Davis’s gang involvement as well as “handwritten or typed documents concerning television shows, documentaries, YouTube episodes, book manuscripts, and movies concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”

Among the items they seized were bullet cartridges, a copy of Vibe magazine featuring Tupac and a copy of Davis’s memoir. The evidence “corroborated information obtained through our investigation,” police said at Friday’s news conference.

In a statement, Tupac’s sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur called the indictment a pivotal moment.

“The silence of the past 27 years surrounding this case has spoken loudly in our community. 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,” wrote Shakur, president of the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation.

“His life and death matters, and should not go unsolved or unrecognized, so yes, today is a victory but I will reserve judgement until all the facts and legal proceedings are complete.”

Herb Scribner contributed to this report, which has been updated.

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