Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur died as a result of a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, local authorities have arrested and charged Duane “Keffe D” Davis in connection with the case. Two officials told the AP that Davis, a former member of the Southside Compton Crips, was taken into custody early Friday, and his indictment on a murder charge was announced a few hours later.
Shakur’s 1996 death came at the height of his fame, when he was 25 years old and embroiled in the East Coast–West Coast hip-hop feud that captivated the music press in the ’90s. The shooting immediately attracted the fascination of rap fans and has remained a subject of considerable intrigue. Davis has spoken about and documented his role in the shooting over the years, writing in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was in the Cadillac from which the bullets were fired at Shakur.
“I don’t understand why people act like Tupac was an angel,” Davis wrote in the book.
In 2011, LA Weekly reported that Davis told investigators that Diddy had offered him $1 million to kill Shakur and record label cofounder Suge Knight, who was driving the BMW in which the rapper was shot. (At the time, Diddy told the publication that Davis’s story was ”pure fiction and completely ridiculous.” A representative declined to comment Friday.) Las Vegas police raided a home belonging to Davis’s wife in July and reportedly collected electronic devices, an issue of Vibe featuring Shakur, several bullets, a large number of photographs, and a copy of Davis’s memoir.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles detective who investigated the killing, told the AP that Davis’s public accounts of his role spurred the investigation that led to his arrest. “It’s those events that have given Las Vegas the ammunition and the leverage to move forward,” he said. “Prior to Keffe D’s public declarations, the cases were unprosecutable as they stood.”