Las Vegas police announced an arrest today in the almost three-decade old murder of Tupac Shakur, a breakthrough in a case that has captured public imagination and frustrated investigators since 1996.
Rap icon Shakur was just 25 years old when he was shot multiple times by someone inside a white Cadillac while his car was stopped at a red light on the Vegas Strip. He died a week later, and the case has remained open ever since.
Police arrested Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a passenger in the car that staged the drive-by shooting (per Associated Press), and charged him with murder with use of a deadly weapon.
Marc DiGiacomo, chief deputy district attorney for Clark County in Nevada, said the Davis indictment came from a Nevada grand jury, which had been seated in the case for “several months,” according to AP. DiGiacomo said Davis “ordered the death of Shakur” and was the “on-ground, on-site commander” in the killing. Clark County District Judge Jerry Wiese denied Davis bail.
Investigators have apparently been aware of Davis, 60, and his alleged involvement for some time. Davis admitted to riding in the backset of the vehicle with his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, in a 2018 interview with BET and again in a 2019 memoir titled Compton Street Legend.
According to Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years on the case, Davis is the last survivor among the four passengers who were in the car that night (via AP). Anderson denied any involvement in the shooting before his death in 1998.
A little over two months ago, police raided Davis’ wife’s home in search of evidence “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.” They reportedly collected multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two “tubs containing photographs” and a copy of Davis’ memoir.
“It’s so long overdue,” Kading said, adding that Davis could be facing a first-degree murder charge since the killing was a premeditated, “concerted effort of conspirators.” “People have been yearning for him to be arrested for a long time,” he continued. “It’s never been unsolved in our minds. It’s been unprosecuted.”