Suspect Arrested in Connection With 1996 Tupac Shakur Murder

Tupac Shakur (Credit: YouTube)

Las Vegas police have arrested a suspect in connection with the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis was taken into custody Friday morning and charged with murder with a deadly weapon, according to the Associated Press.

Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said court that Davis “ordered the death” of Shakur.

Prosecutors asked that he be held without bail.

Davis, 60, has long been linked to the rapper’s death, and admitted in interviews and his memoir that he was inside the white Cadillac that ambushed the rapper.

Related StoryTupac Shakur Murder Investigation Takes Turn With New Search Warrant

Shakur was shot multiple times on the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996. He was in a vehicle with former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight when another car pulled up beside them and opened fire. Tupac died from his injuries several days later at age 25.

In his 2019 book Compton Street Legend, Davis — a Southside Compton Crips shot-caller — bragged about the shooting that killed Shakur.

“The infamous Suge Knight… and I are the only living eyewitnesses to the deadly confrontation on the Las Vegas strip between the occupants of our two vehicles,” he wrote in the book’s description on Amazon.

The case went unsolved for decades. Then in July, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department served a search warrant as the investigation into Tupac’s killing took a new turn.

“LVMPD can confirm a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevada on July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation,” the department said at the time. Detectives were reportedly looking for computers, laptops and news articles about Tupac’s death.

Shortly after the search warrant was served, Allen Hughes, director of FX’s Tupac Shakur documentary series Dear Mama, said “the streets” always knew who killed the rapper.

“My first thought, like everyone, was what took so long? The community and the streets have always known who did it, so this is interesting,” Hughes said in an interview with Extra.

On the night of the shooting, Shakur attended a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand.

The rapper and his entourage, including Knight, were involved in an altercation with a gang member after leaving the match. Ongoing theories suggest that the altercation may have led to a revenge killing.

After the event, Shakur and Knight were driving to a nightclub in a black BMW when they were ambushed in a drive-by shooting.

Shakur sustained multiple gunshot wounds and subsequently spent six days in a hospital fighting for his life before he died.


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About Anita Bennett

Anita Bennett is the editor and founder of Urban Hollywood 411. She can be reached on Twitter @tvanita.