Rap’s most famous unsolved mystery is close to being solved 27 years later. The Las Vegas police announced this Friday the arrest of Duane Keffe D Davis, one of the last men who can tell the truth about the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996, which occurred near the Strip, the most tourist area of the capital , the game took place in the United States. Davis, 60, is an old acquaintance of the authorities in this case. Prosecutors believe he is the mastermind of the murder of one of the hip-hop legends, who died at age 25 after a gunman opened fire four times at him from a white Cadillac at a traffic light.
“For 27 years, Tupac Shakur’s family has waited for justice. “We are here to announce the arrest of 60-year-old Duane Davis for the murder of Tupac Shakur,” said Kevin McMahill, the sheriff of Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, this Friday. The arrest was made this morning by local police near the suspect’s house on the outskirts of the city. “There are many people who claim that Tupac’s murder was not important to this police department, but I am here today to tell you that is not the case,” McMahill added at a news conference.
Davis was charged with murder and faces an additional weapons charge. He will appear in court for the first time next week. His gang history could also add 20 years to his sentence if convicted.
Davis was an eyewitness to the rapper’s murder, which occurred a few minutes after 11 p.m. on September 13, 1996. He was on board the white Cadillac that shot at the BMW in which Marion Suge Knight, the controversial founder of the record label Death Row Records, was traveling. and Tupac, the genre’s rising star after the release of the influential double album All Eyez on Me. Suge and Tupac were in Las Vegas for the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Sheldon, an event well attended by Los Angeles gang members. After an altercation at the MGM Casino involving his bodyguards, the group went to a nightclub.
The man arrested today was one of four Las Vegas police suspects. Davis, who boasts of being a gang member, admits in a 2019 book titled “Compton Street Legend” that he was given the gun used in the murder. A grand jury believes he is responsible for ordering the murder, which may have been committed by his nephew Orlando Baby Lane Anderson, who was also aboard the white vehicle. Anderson died in a shooting in California in 1998.
Davis’ memories alerted authorities, who searched his wife Paula Clemons’ home in Henderson, in the Las Vegas area, on the night of July 17 looking for records related to the case. Agents took computers, a hard drive, cell phones, .40-caliber bullets, photos, a Vibe magazine with Tupac on the cover and a copy of the book signed by Davis from the house.
Keefe D also states in his book that he was arrested for drug trafficking, an aggravating circumstance that could have landed him in prison for life. Prosecutors proposed dropping the charges in exchange for helping investigate Shakur’s case, which so far has not resulted in a single arrest.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police officer who spent years investigating Shakur’s murder, interviewed Davis in 2008 and wrote a book about the case, said in a recent interview that he would not be surprised if Davis was arrested. “It’s been pending for a long time,” he said. “Many people have been calling for his arrest for a long time. For us, the case was never unsolved. It will not be prosecuted.” The remaining suspects involved in the murder are dead. Suge Knight is serving a 25-year prison sentence in California for a separate case.
Shakur is one of the most influential figures in the history of hip hop music. His death was part of a wave of violence between the stars of the growing rap industry and the gangs that supported them, both in the East in cities like New York and Philadelphia and in the West in areas like Los Angeles. These street fights also ended the life of his rival, The Notorious BIG, who was murdered in New York in 1997.
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