Key witness to rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder case arrested

LAS VEGAS: In a breakthrough since the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur occurred in 1996, police arrested one of the last living witnesses, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, in the Las Vegas area.

This arrest comes after 27 years of frustration for investigators and continued public fascination since the tragic shooting of the hip-hop icon on the bustling Las Vegas Strip.

In the early hours of Friday morning, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was apprehended on suspicion of murder, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the arrest. These officials, however, were not authorized to comment publicly until an anticipated indictment is issued later on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

It remains unclear, as per court records, whether Davis has legal representation available to speak on his behalf. Despite numerous attempts to reach him, including multiple phone calls and text messages from The Associated Press spanning over two months since a police raid on his wife’s residence in nearby Henderson on July 17, Davis has not responded.

Documents related to the raid indicated that law enforcement was searching for items related to the murder of Tupac Shakur. Items seized included multiple computers, a cellphone, a hard drive, a Vibe magazine featuring Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two containers with photographs, and a copy of Davis’ 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”

Davis has long been known to investigators and has admitted in interviews and his 2019 memoir that he was present in the Cadillac from which the fatal shots were fired during the September 1996 drive-by shooting.

Shakur, only 25 years old at the time, was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when they were waiting at a red light on the Las Vegas Strip. The Cadillac pulled up next to them, and Shakur was fatally shot.

At the time of his death, Shakur’s fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” was still on the charts, with approximately 5 million copies sold. Nominated six times for a Grammy Award, Shakur is still widely regarded as one of the most influential and versatile rappers in the history of the genre.

In his memoir, Davis confessed to being in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and acknowledged slipping the murder weapon into the backseat, from where he claimed the fatal shots were fired. Davis also implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, as one of the two individuals in the backseat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had previously been involved in a casino brawl with the rapper shortly before the shooting. Anderson died two years later, maintaining his innocence regarding Shakur’s death.

Davis revealed in his memoir that he initially broke his silence in 2010 during a closed-door meeting with federal and local authorities. At that time, Davis, facing life in prison on drug charges, agreed to cooperate with authorities regarding Tupac’s killing and the subsequent murder of Tupac’s rap rival, Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G.

“They offered to let me go for running a ‘criminal enterprise’ and numerous alleged murders for the truth about the Tupac and Biggie murders,” Davis wrote. “They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out.”

US says it expects India to work with Canada on murder case

Davis has positioned himself as one of the last living witnesses to the shooting.

During the same period when Shakur was killed, he was also feuding with his rap rival, Biggie Smalls, who was fatally shot in March 1997. Both rappers were embroiled in an East Coast-West Coast rivalry that dominated the hip-hop scene in the mid-1990s.

Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who extensively investigated the Shakur killing and authored a book on the subject, expressed little surprise at Davis’ indictment and arrest.

“It’s so long overdue,” Kading commented during a recent interview with The Associated Press. “People have been yearning for him to be arrested for a long time. It’s never been unsolved in our minds. It’s been unprosecuted.”

Kading disclosed that he had interviewed Davis in 2008 and 2009, during the Los Angeles police investigations into Shakur’s killing and the murder of Biggie Smalls.

Furthermore, Kading reported discussing the case with a Las Vegas police detective, including after the SWAT raid on Davis’ Henderson home in July.

The former Los Angeles police detective believes that Davis’ public statements regarding his role in the killing, including his 2019 memoir, gave new impetus to the investigation in recent years.

“It’s those events that have given Las Vegas the ammunition and the leverage to move forward,” Kading explained. “Prior to Keffe D’s public declarations, the cases were unprosecutable as they stood.”

“He put himself squarely in the middle of the conspiracy,” Kading stated regarding Davis and Shakur’s slaying. “He had acquired the gun, he had given the gun to the shooter, and he had been present in the vehicle when they hunted down and located both Tupac and Suge (Knight).”

Kading emphasized that Davis is the last living individual among the four people who were in the vehicle from which shots were fired at Shakur and Knight. The others in the vehicle were Anderson (Davis’ nephew), Terrence “Bubble Up” Brown, and DeAndre “Freaky” Smith.

“It’s a concerted effort of conspirators,” Kading asserted, adding that he believed Davis could potentially face a first-degree murder charge given the premeditated nature of the killing.

“All the other direct conspirators or participants are all dead,” Kading concluded. “Keffe D is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac.”