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Duane “Keffe D” Davis arrested in connection to the deadly 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur
Duane “Keffe D” Davis was taken into custody early Friday morning, although the specific charges have not been disclosed at this time.
In a significant development, Las Vegas police have apprehended a man in connection with the 1996 drive-by shooting that claimed the life of Tupac Shakur.
This breakthrough comes after 27 years of investigation into a case that has both confounded law enforcement and captivated the public.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis was taken into custody early Friday morning, although the specific charges have not been disclosed at this time.
This information comes from two sources directly involved in the arrest who, due to non-disclosure agreements, are not permitted to speak publicly before an anticipated indictment later on Friday.
Investigators have been well aware of Davis for some time. He has openly acknowledged in interviews and detailed in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he was present in the Cadillac when the gunfire erupted during the drive-by shooting in September 1996.
At the time of the incident, Shakur was 25 years old. This arrest follows a police raid on his wife’s residence in neighboring Henderson on July 17, which occurred two months prior.
Official documents stated that authorities were searching for items related to the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Police documented the seizure of numerous computers, a cellphone, a hard drive, a copy of Vibe magazine featuring Shakur, various .40-caliber bullets, two containers holding photographs, and a copy of Davis’ 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.” In the memoir, Davis disclosed that he decided to break his silence regarding Tupac’s murder in 2010 during a confidential meeting with federal and local law enforcement. At that time, he was 46 years old and facing potential life imprisonment on drug charges.
He agreed to cooperate with authorities, influenced by their assurance that they would dismiss the indictment and halt the grand jury proceedings in exchange for his assistance.
He has identified himself as one of the final surviving witnesses to the incident. Shakur, who was 25 years old at the time, fell victim to a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on the evening of September 7, 1996.
The rapper was seated in a BMW, chauffeured by Death Row Records’ founder Marion “Suge” Knight, as part of a convoy of approximately ten vehicles. While they were halted at a red light, a white Cadillac pulled up alongside them, leading to a sudden outbreak of gunfire. Shakur sustained multiple gunshot wounds and passed away a week thereafter.
In 2018, following a cancer diagnosis, Davis openly confessed in an interview for a BET program to being present inside the Cadillac at the time of the assault. He pointed to his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, asserting that he was one of the two individuals seated in the back where the gunfire originated.
This incident occurred shortly after a confrontation at a casino earlier that evening, which involved Anderson, Shakur, and others. Anderson consistently denied any connection to the shooting of Shakur. Tragically, he lost his life two years later in a shooting in Compton, California.
At the time of Shakur’s passing, his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” was still making waves on the charts, having sold approximately 5 million copies. With six Grammy Award nominations to his name, Shakur is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential and versatile figures in the rap genre’s history.
Concurrently, Shakur was entangled in a feud with his rap adversary, Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G., who tragically lost his life in a shooting in March 1997. During this period, both rappers found themselves at the center of an East Coast-West Coast rivalry, which played a defining role in the hip-hop landscape of the mid-1990s.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who dedicated years to probing the Shakur case and authored a book on it, expressed his lack of surprise at the news of Davis’s indictment and apprehension. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Kading remarked, “It’s so long overdue.
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.” Kading noted that he conducted interviews with Davis in 2008 and 2009 as part of the Los Angeles police investigations into the homicides of both Shakur in Las Vegas and the killing of Biggie Smalls.
This is a developing story that will be updated when more information is available.
