27 Years Later: Tupac Shakur Murder Suspect Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis Finally Charged by Police
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Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department | Raymond Boyd/Getty Images
The man, Duane Davis, alias Keffe D, a former gang boss, claims the four shots that murdered the rapper in 1996 came from the car he was riding in. More than 25 years after Tupac Shakur’s death ended up being a defining tragedy in hip-hop, a self-described gang member who continually maintained that he was involved in the drive-by killing was indicted on a murder charge, Las Vegas prosecutors announced on Friday, restoring a blockbuster investigation that had long stalled. In interviews and in a memoir, the guy, Duane Keith Davis, alias Keffe D, stated that he was in the front passenger seat of the white Cadillac that drew up close the car holding Mr. Shakur following a 1996 prizefight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon in Las Vegas. The 25-year-old rapper was fatally wounded four times & died less than a week later in a hospital.
The mugshot of Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, the individual charged in connection with 2Pac's murder, has been released. pic.twitter.com/fd0m5tmYtq
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) September 29, 2023
According to a prosecutor in court on Friday, a grand jury in Clark County indicted Mr. Davis on one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon, plus a gang enhancement. Mr. Davis was arrested and is being held without bail, according to The Associated Press. Despite nearly three decades of speculation, evidence, as well as reporting, no criminal allegations had ever been filed in the shooting of Mr. Shakur, one of the most popular singers of the 1990s, with compositions that added poetic seriousness to combative gangster rap. However, the investigation was resurrected in July when Las Vegas police conducted a search warrant at a property in Henderson, Nevada, linked to Mr. Davis.
VladTV reveals that the police contacted him about Keefe D. and Tupac’s murder but he declined to cooperate pic.twitter.com/b2j5FY33Db
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) September 30, 2023
Who Exactly Is Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis? What You Need To Know About The Man Charged In Tupac Shakur’s Murder
Homicide investigators spent nearly three decades trying to figure out who killed Tupac Shakur in a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas strip on September 7, 1996. After decades of agony for those seeking justice for the beloved musician, authorities revealed on Friday that a Clark County grand jury had returned a murder indictment for Duane “Keffe D” Davis. “Many people had doubts that Tupac Shakur’s murder was significant to this police department, and I am here to reassure you: That was not the case,” said Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill. Authorities described the timing and evidence that they claimed created a strong case against Davis, some of which was based on interviews he gave to various media sources. In a news conference Friday, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said Davis “will show up in court in the next few days” to assess his custody status and set a trial date. Wolfson said he has been charged with one count of open murder with a deadly weapon and a gang enhancement. Davis, 60, is the last live suspect in the case, according to investigators. Davis was a member of the South Side Compton Crips gang when he plotted his revenge on Shukar, according to investigators. In 2019, he published his autobiography, “Compton Street Legend.”
In his narrative, he claims to have climbed through the ranks of the renowned South California gang to become a “shot caller,” and to be operating a multimillion-dollar drug empire throughout the country. Davis & his family relocated to Compton, then a “middle-class family-oriented neighbourhood for Black families,” after growing up in Watts. Davis’ father as well as his uncle were betting on horses at the Agua Caliente Race Track in Tijuana, Mexico, when his father won $50,000 – the equivalent of $1 million today, according to his memoir. Davis stated that his parents, a homemaker from Texas and a Marine from Virginia, used the money to buy a house in Compton and two new cars, delighted by the promise and possibility of America. According to Davis, their family was the only Black family on the block when they moved there in 1965. White families began to evacuate gradually, “like cockroaches running when the lights had been switched on,” Davis wrote. Three more males who were believed to be in the white Cadillac on the night Shakur was shot have died. According to investigators, Davis is the last living accused in the case. Shakur along with members of his entourage arrived at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on the night of the shooting to watch Mike Tyson fight. Authorities say Shakur & Knight saw Davis’s nephew Orlando Anderson in the motel. The incident was stopped by hotel workers after video surveillance showed Shakur and Knight hitting the nephew.
