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One of the last live witnesses to musician Tupac Shakur’s tragic drive-by shooting in Las Vegas was charged with murder Friday, a long-awaited breakthrough in a case that has vexed investigators and captivated the public.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo revealed in court Friday that a Nevada grand jury has indicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
Investigators have known Davis for a long time, and he has stated in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all biography, “Compton Street Legend,” that he was in the Cadillac from which the bullets erupted during the September 1996 drive-by shooting.
DiGiacomo described Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Shakur, who was killed at the age of 25.
Davis, 60, was detained this morning while out for a walk near his house in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, according to DiGiacomo.
Las Vegas police raided Davis’ home in mid-July. According to the search warrant, they were seeking for items “relating to the murder of Tupac Shakur.” They gathered several computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Shakur-themed Vibe magazine, several.40-caliber bullets, two “tubs containing photographs,” and a copy of Davis’ memoir.
“It has often been said that justice delayed is justice denied,” District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after the hearing in a brief comment to the AP. “In this case, justice has been delayed, but justice won’t be denied.” A grand jury has been hearing evidence in the case for several months.
On Friday, Clark County District Judge Jerry Wiese denied Davis bail.
It was unclear whether Davis has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. Since the house raid, Davis has not responded to several phone and text messages from The Associated Press requesting comment.
Messages left Friday for his wife, Paula Clemons, also weren’t returned.
On September 7, 1996, Shakur was in a convoy of roughly ten automobiles led by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight in a BMW. When a white Cadillac came up next to them at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, shooting erupted. Shakur was shot repeatedly and died a week later.
The rapper died as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” was still selling well, with over 5 million copies sold. Shakur, who has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, is widely regarded as one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.
Davis claimed in his memoir that he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped the gun used in the murder into the backseat, from which he claimed the rounds were fired.
Davis named his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, as one of the two individuals in the backseat. Anderson, a known Shakur foe, was involved in a casino battle with the rapper just before the shooting. Anderson denies any participation in the death of Assata Shakur. He passed away two years later.
In his nephew’s defense, DiGiacomo stated that “Mr. Davis formulated a plan to exact revenge upon Mr. Knight and Mr. Shakur” following the casino brawl.
Davis stated in his memoir that he first broke his silence in 2010 during a closed-door meeting with federal and local officials. He was 46 at the time and faced life in jail on drug charges. He consented to speak with them about Tupac’s death, as well as the death of Tupac’s rap adversary, Biggie Smalls, popularly known as the Notorious B.I.G., six months later.
“They offered to let me go for running a ‘criminal enterprise’ and numerous alleged murders for the truth about the Tupac and Biggie murders,” he wrote. “They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out.”
Shakur was warring with rap rival Biggie Smalls at the time, who was tragically shot in March 1997. At the time, both rappers were embroiled in an East Coast-West Coast rivalry that dominated the hip-hop landscape in the mid-1990s.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police officer who spent years investigating the Shakur murder and wrote a book about it, says Davis’ arrest comes as no surprise.
The former Los Angeles police investigator stated that the inquiry received fresh traction in recent years as a result of Davis’ public statements of his role in the murder, including his 2019 novel.
“It’s those events that have given Las Vegas the ammunition and the leverage to move forward,” Kading said. “Prior to Keffe D’s public declarations, the cases were unprosecutable as they stood.”
