Duane “Keefe D” Davis, the only person charged in the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, claims Sean “Diddy” Combs offered a $1 million bounty to kill the rap legend and Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight.
Davis made the allegation in a previously secret 2008 DEA report detailing interviews the former Southside Compton Crips leader did with law enforcement.
The documents were filed in court earlier this year. USA Today viewed the filings and published details on Sunday, Sept. 7.
Related: Trial for Tupac Shakur Murder Suspect Keefe D Pushed to 2026
In the court papers, Davis claimed Combs wanted to get rid of his rivals.
“I have a couple of problems I need to be handled: Big CEO and Pac,” Davis claimed Combs said during a meeting at Greenblatt’s Deli on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Combs’ late associate, New York City gangster Eric “Von Zip” Martin, was also said to be at the meeting.
The group allegedly settled on a “$1 million bounty on the two men’s heads,” USA Today reported.
Combs has vehemently denied any involvement in Tupac’s killing. In a 2016 interview with “The Breakfast Club,” he called rumors about his alleged involvement “nonsense.”
The mogul is currently jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, where he is awaiting sentencing on Oct. 3, on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution after he was convicted on July 2. However, he was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges in his federal trial.
Las Vegas police arrested Davis in connection with Tupac’s murder in September 2023.
Now in his 60s, he previously admitted in interviews and his memoir that he was in the white Cadillac that ambushed the “California Love” rapper on the Las Vegas strip. The three other men in the vehicle are all dead.
In July 2024, The Sun, published a news story saying Davis was a “confidential police informant,” who went undercover after landing in trouble with police in a drug case, and attempted to implicate Combs in Tupac’s murder.
Davis flew to New York with undercover LAPD detectives in 2009, as part of an operation to obtain evidence against the mogul and Eric Von Martin. The article included documents and audio recordings submitted into evidence in Davis’ murder case.
The Sun reported Diddy — then-known as Puff Daddy — was mentioned a total of “77 times” in the filing.
Keefe D reportedly told authorities Puffy offered “a million dollars” to “handle” Tupac and Suge Knight in Las Vegas, and the money was allegedly to be funneled through Eric Von Martin.
After the shooting, Diddy allegedly called Keefe D, the court papers said.
“When Sean Combs reaches out to Defendant wondering if South Side Crips were responsible for Shakur’s death by asking, ‘Is that us?’ Defendant, beaming with pride, answers, ‘Yes,’” the documents said.
Keefe D was scheduled to go to trial Nov. 4, 2024, but his trial has been postponed until 2026.
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