Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in 1996. Here's why it's taken so long for the police to charge someone with his murder.
Eve Crosbie
- Police have arrested one of the last surviving witnesses to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.
- The New York-born hip-hop legend was shot four times in a drive-by attack in Las Vegas. He was 25.
A longtime suspect in the murder of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur has been arrested and charged with murder, marking a major breakthrough in the case that has fascinated the public for almost 30 years.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis was indicted by a jury in Clark County, Nevada, on one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon, plus a gang enhancement, a prosecutor said on Friday, after The Associated Press reported that he had been placed in custody without bail.
Per The New York Times, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo stated in the courtroom that the broad outlines of what happened the night Shakur was gunned down have been known to the police since their investigation opened in 1996.
Yet Davis — a suspect who has long been on their radar and has spoken openly about his involvement in Shakur's killing since 2018 — is the first person who has been charged for his involvement in Shakur's death. He is also one of the few remaining living witnesses as many of the others thought to have played a part have since died.
So what exactly happened the night the rap icon was killed and why has it taken so long for authorities to charge someone? Here's everything you need to know about the case.
Tupac Shakur was targeted after he and others attacked a member of a notorious Compton gang.
On 7 September 1996, Shakur attended a Mike Tyson boxing match at MGM Grand in Las Vegas with his Death Row Records manager Marion "Suge" Knight, his business partner Tracy Danielle Robinson, and Robinson's boyfriend Gobi M. Rahimi, according to Rahimi, who recounted the events of the night to Esquire in 2016.
The bout was also attended by members of the gang the Southside Compton Crips, including Davis and his nephew Orlando Anderson, also known as "Baby Lane."
"As both groups were leaving the fight, members of Death Row Records spotted Orlando Anderson near an elevator bank inside the MGM and at that time they began to kick and punch him near that elevator bank," Jason Johansson, the police department's homicide lieutenant said during a news conference on Friday.
He also showed hotel CCTV footage of the fight, which showed Shakur and Knight visible among the men attacking Anderson.
Later that evening, Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip.
According to Johansson, when Davis found out about the attack on his nephew, he "began to devise a plan to obtain a firearm and retaliate." Once he had done so, he got into a white Cadillac along with Terrence Brown, Deandre Smith, and Anderson.
"At some point in time, as they were in the white Cadillac, Mr Davis took the gun that he had obtained and provided it to the passengers in the rear seat of the vehicle," Johansson said.
At 11:15 p.m., on the corner of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, their car pulled up to the right of the BMW and opened fire.
Per CNN, the indictment states that Anderson and Smith were both in the back seat but it does not say which man pulled the trigger.
Shakur was shot four times and taken to hospital but died six days later.
The rapper was 25 years old at the time and riding high off the success of his trailblazing fourth solo album, "All Eyez on Me," which sold more than five million copies and had been on Billboard 200 charts for 30 weeks at that point.
When news of his shooting was reported two days later on September 9, 1996, a spokesman at University Medical Center said that Shakur's injuries were not life-threatening, per The New York Times.
Six days after the attack, on September 13, 1996, Shakur was pronounced dead. The official causes of death were listed as respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with multiple gunshot wounds.
Knight, meanwhile, experienced minor injuries and made a full recovery.
The first police officer on the scene asked Shakur who shot him, but the rapper refused to name his attacker.
According to the Las Vegas publication Vegas Seven (via Billboard), the first responder police officer did not get a name out of Shakur when he asked him who shot him.
Had Shakur provided the names of his known attackers, the police would've had a basis to arrest and potentially charge them.
"He looked at me, and he took a breath to get the words out, and he opened his mouth," said Chris Carroll, a retired sergeant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. "And then the words came out: 'Fuck you.'"
The police arrested Anderson and questioned them about Shakur's death within weeks, but he was not treated as a suspect.
According to The New York Times, Anderson was arrested in connection with an unrelated homicide but police questioned him about Shakur's death. At the time, however, they stated that he was not a suspect in the case.
Anderson died in 1998 as a result of another, unrelated gang shootout. In the intervening years, the other men in the car, Brown and Smith have also died.
In 2009, Davis revealed his involvement in Shakur's death but his confession was unable to be used as evidence.
According to Pitchfork, Davis was questioned by Los Angeles police as a suspect in connection with the 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G., and, while cooperating with them under a proffer agreement, shared details of Shakur's death.
A proffer allows suspects to provide information in an investigation without that information being used as evidence against them. As a result, the police could do nothing with just Davis' confession under the proffer agreement alone.
Davis first spoke publicly about his involvement in Shakur's murder in 2018, leading to police "reviewing the case."
In a 2018 on-camera interview for the crime series "Unsolved: the Tupac and Biggie Murders," Davis spoke at length about being a witness to the murder.
He also discussed the case in an episode of BET's "Death Row Chronicles."
In response to his media appearances, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter that they had been "reviewing the case in its entirety" and that it "remains an open homicide case."
A year later, Davis wrote in his memoir about Shakur's murder, but still no charges were laid.
Davis wrote in his memoir, "Compton Street Legend," that Shakur "chose the wrong game to play" and that the attack on Anderson "gave us the ultimate green light to do something" in retaliation.
He also wrote about the "strict code" of the streets that gang members "live, kill and die by."
"Tupac's and Biggie's deaths were direct results of that code violation and the explosive consequences when the powerful worlds of the streets, entertainment and crooked-ass law enforcement collide," Davis wrote.
He added that a few days after the shooting, they cleaned the car and returned it to the rental agency, noting that it was "too late for any forensics to be accurate and reliable."
In July, the investigation made surprise progress when a search warrant was executed on Davis' wife's home.
The department confirmed to Insider in a statement that the search had been carried out in connection to Shakur's murder.
According to CNN, when police searched the home in Henderson, Nevada on July 20, they seized several tablets, an iPhone, five computers, USB and hard drives, photographs, and a copy of the memoir Davis authored.
Two months later, Davis was charged with Shakur's murder, indicating that the evidence helped confirm their suspicions about his involvement.
Earlier this year, Davis said he wasn't "scared" of going to jail as a result of his decision to talk candidly about the murder.
In an interview with DJ Vlad in July after his home was searched, Davis was asked whether he was worried that his previous disclosures about Shakur's murder could lead to a prosecution.
The now-60-year-old, who said he was previously incarcerated for 15 years, responded: "If they want to put me in jail for life, that's just something I got to do. It's not like I'm scared of jail."
It seems that lack of sufficient evidence was the main reason for the delay in charging Davis.
According to former prosecutor Joshua Ritter, the Las Vegas Police Department's case against Davis "hinges on his admissions," and the recent raid "was a capstone to the investigation" — although it might not have revealed anything they didn't already know.
"The police now say that what they found when they executed a search warrant in July corroborated what they learned in their investigation," he told Insider. "To me, that's code for 'we didn't find anything new.'"
He added that the raid on his property "allowed police to confirm what they already had learned, and more importantly, it didn't raise any issues that called into question their suspicion of Davis."
"They have wanted to make sure they went through all the necessary steps, and that it never appears they're getting over their skis in this high-profile prosecution."
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