Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a man long identified as one of four suspects in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, was arrested and charged with murder on Friday, a long-awaited development in one of the world’s most enduring mysteries. hip hop.
Although Davis is not the perpetrator of the shooting, authorities described him as the leader of the group at a news conference and in court. “Duane Davis was the leader of this group of individuals that committed this crime,” said police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson. “He orchestrated the plan that was carried out.”
Davis, 60, admitted in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he provided the gun used in the shooting.
Authorities said Davis’ public comments reignited the investigation. He was arrested early that Friday while walking near his home outside Las Vegas. Hours earlier, a Nevada grand jury had indicted him on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He is expected to appear in court next week.
The arrest, the first in the case, came after Las Vegas police raided Davis’ home in July in the nearby city of Henderson looking for items related to the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Shakur was killed in a shooting in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996. Davis, in his book, implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, as one of the two occupants in the back seat of the car from where the shots were fired. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a fight with the rapper at a casino shortly before the shooting.
Davis’ arrest closes a chapter in one of the most shocking stories in the world of hip-hop, bringing a measure of closure to Tupac Shakur fans and the late rapper’s family.