Man arrested and charged in Tupac Shakur murder case
Duane Keith "Keefe D" Davis was taken into custody months after his wife's house was searched by police
A man has been arrested and charged in connection with the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
The investigation into the legendary's rapper death in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting has continued for decades with a number of leads ultimately leading to dead-ends. Nevada police have now arrested 60-year-old Duane Keith "Keefe D" Davis, and charged him with murder with use of a deadly weapon.
The development comes just months after Davis' wife's home, in Henderson, Nevada, was searched by police in relation to the investigation into Shakur's murder.
The suspect has long been known to investigators, having previously admitted in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, 'Compton Street Legend', that he was in the Cadillac from which Shakur was shot at the time of the shooting. He is now the first person to be arrested in direct connection with the killing, with police saying that three other suspects in the murder are all now deceased.
In the first court hearing since Davis' arrest, a prosecutor added that he had further been charged with intent to promote and assist a criminal gang.
Police have revealed that they believe Shakur's murder relates to a grudge between various people that originated in May 1996 when Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson allegedly assaulted Travon "Tray" Lane, an associate of Death Row Records boss Suge Knight, at a shoe store. On 7th September that same year, after a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Lane told Shakur he had seen Anderson in the hotel lobby.
Shakur was then involved in a revenge assault on Anderson, which was captured by security cameras. The rapper returned to his hotel room before heading to Vegas' Club 662 with Suge Knight, where he was scheduled to perform at a charity event.
On his way to the venue, a white Cadillac pulled up to the passenger side of Shakur's car. The shooter rolled down one of the car's windows and fired a number of shots, with four of them hitting Shakur. He died six days later after the removal of his right lung, which had been hit by one of the bullets, caused respiratory failure and cardiac arrest.
Nevada police subsequently spoke to a number of people that they believed had information on the killing, but failed to find any real leads due to a lack of cooperation from most of those they interviewed.
One of them, Yaki Kadafi – who was a member of Shakur's group Outlawz – was riding in the car behind Shakur's and witnessed the shooting. Having initially refused to cooperate with police, he later told them he could possibly identify the people in the Cadillac. He was murdered in Irvington, New Jersey before he was interviewed, however.
