Suspect charged with murder in connection with Tupac Shakur's 1996 death
One of the most frustratingly unsolved murder cases in recent American history may finally be on the path to closure.
On Friday, Las Vegas police arrested Duane "Keffe D" Davis in connection with the 1996 drive-by shooting of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur, according to the Associated Press. Davis was subsequently indicted by a Nevada grand jury and charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon. Citing Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo, who called Davis the "on-ground, on-site commander" who ordered Shakur's death, the AP reports that the 60-year-old was arrested in the early morning while on a walk outside his home.
The development comes just two months after Las Vegas police raided Davis' home in the nearby city of Henderson, Nev. According to the search warrant, investigators came away with a USB drive, an iPhone, multiple tablets and laptops, two black tubs of photographs, "purported marijuana," a copy of Davis' 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend, and an issue of Vibe magazine that featured Shakur.
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images Tupac Shakur in 1993
Shakur was repeatedly shot Sept. 7, 1996 on the Las Vegas Strip and died days later at age 25. The killing occurred just six months before the similarly unsolved murder of Shakur's East Coast rap rival Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G. The bloody end to their rivalry has long lingered in the popular imagination, and the criminal investigations have been dramatized on screen (such as in the 2018 TV miniseries Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.) but without much resolution...until now, perhaps.
According to the AP, in Davis' tell-all memoir, he confirms that he was in the Cadillac that fatally fired on Shakur's BMW. Such a public declaration gave police the ammunition to move against Davis, according to AP's interview with retired LAPD detective Greg Kading (who was played by Josh Duhamel in Unsolved). Nevada has no statute of limitations when it comes to charges of murder.
"It's so long overdue," Kading told AP. "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."
Although he died at such a young age, Shakur left behind an impressive legacy that includes four influential hip-hop albums and starring roles in movies like Juice and Poetic Justice. The Grammy-nominated rapper received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame earlier this year.
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