Las Vegas police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting that killed rapper Tupac Shakur.
Duane Davis was arrested early Friday morning, although the exact charges have not yet been announced, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the case. They were not allowed to speak publicly ahead of their expected arraignment on Friday.
Mr. Davis has long been known to investigators and himself admitted in interviews and in his 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend” that he was in the Cadillac from which the gunfire erupted during the September 1996 shootout. Tupac Shakur was 25 years old when he was shot.
The arrest came two months after Las Vegas police searched the woman, Duane Davis’, home in nearby Henderson on July 17. According to the documents, police were looking for items “related to the murder of Tupac Shakur.”
Police said they seized several computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine featuring Tupac Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two “vats of photos” and a copy of Davis’ memoir in which he portrayed himself described as one of the last living witnesses to the shooting.
In the book, Duane Davis said he broke his silence about Tupac’s murder in 2010 at a closed-door meeting with federal and local authorities. He was 46 at the time and facing life in prison for drug trafficking when he agreed to talk to authorities. They promised to withdraw the charges, he wrote.
His nephew was involved
In 2018, after a cancer diagnosis, Duane Davis publicly admitted in an interview that he was in the Cadillac during the attack. He blamed his nephew, Orlando Anderson, and said he was one of two people sitting in the back seat from where the shots were fired.
The shooting occurred shortly after a fight at a casino earlier in the evening.
Orlando Anderson has denied any involvement in the shooting of Tupac Shakur. He died two years later in a shootout in Compton, California.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years investigating Tupac Shakur’s murder and wrote a book about it, said he would not be surprised by the indictment and arrest of Duane Davis.
This should have happened a long time ago.
Mr. Kading said he interviewed Davis in 2008 and 2009 during Los Angeles police investigations.
The former Los Angeles police officer said he believes the investigation has gained new momentum in recent years after Duane Davis publicly detailed his role in the murder, including his tell-all 2019 memoir, included in Compton Street Legend be.
He was at the center of the case, Mr. Kading said of Duane Davis. He obtained the gun, gave it to the shooter, and was present in the vehicle when they tracked down and located Tupac.
With information from Associated Press and Agence France-Presse