Nevada man, believed to be the last living suspect investigated in the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur, was arrested Friday in connection with the long-unsolved case, officials said.
A grand jury handed up a murder indictment against Duane Keith Davis, 60, also known as “Keefy D” or “Keffe D,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Jason Johansson and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told reporters.
Davis has previously acknowledged that he was in the car that pulled up next to the rapper’s vehicle when he was shot. But until Friday, no charges had ever been filed in the case that has fueled headlines, conspiracy theories, songs and movies for years.
“This is the indictment we’ve been waiting almost three decades for,” Wolfson said, holding a copy of the indictment. “Justice will be severed.”
Shakur, 25, was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas and died Sept. 13.
Of the four people thought to be in the car that attacked Shakur, Davis is the last known survivor.
“In this case, the only living suspect related to this investigation is Duane Davis, all other three suspects are deceased,” Johansson said.
Orlando Anderson, Davis’ nephew, has long been suspected of pulling the trigger. Anderson was killed in a 1998 gang shooting in Los Angeles.
Shakur’s murder was sparked by a fight earlier that night when the rapper and Death Row Records founder Suge Knight roughed up Anderson inside the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino after a Mike Tyson boxing match, officials said.
Anderson and Davis were affiliated with the South Side Compton Crips, rivals of Mob Piru, who were tied to Shakur and Knight.
Anderson’s beating led Davis to immediately plan revenge against Shakur and he got the gun that was used to kill him, officials said.
“Duane Davis was the shot caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime and he orchestrated the plan that was carried out,” Johansson said.
The case was “reinvigorated” in 2018 by statements Davis made, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said.
While Las Vegas authorities didn’t specify what words by Davis contributed to his indictment, he had been in talks with Los Angeles police in a separate drug investigation in 2018 when he discussed Shkur’s slaying in a non-prosecution agreement.
“He provides his own series of statements that are very consistent with the evidence that we have obtained,” Johansson said.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Davis had a criminal defense lawyer to speak on his behalf.
Police served a search warrant on Davis at his home near Las Vegas on July 17, looking for laptops and other electronic devices in connection with the decades-long investigation.
Johansson declined to detail what items in that search led to the indictment but he said items seized “corroborated information obtained through our investigation.”
DA Wolfson said his office has been in contact with Shakur’s family and they’re aware of this prosecution.
“We understand they are that are welcoming this news,” Wolfson said. “They are pleased with this news.”
Shakur and his entourage were in Las Vegas for a heavyweight bout between Mike Tyson and Bruce Sheldon on the night of the murder.
The rapper and his friends were stopped near East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane when a Cadillac pulled alongside and someone inside that car opened fire, mortally wounding Shakur.
“I ended up pulling Tupac out of the car,” retired LVMPD Lt. Chris Carroll told NBC affiliate KSNV over the summer, just after the search warrant was served on Davis. “I spoke to him. He was still alive. He was still breathing.”
Carroll, a sergeant at the time, said he vividly remembers his brief interaction with Shakur.
“I was asking him who did it, who shot him, what happened?” said Carroll. “And that’s when he responded to me with the now infamous words ‘F-U.’”
Less than six months after Shakur’s slaying, Brooklyn rapper Christoper Wallace — best known as the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls — was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles.
No one has ever been charged for Biggie’s March 9, 1997, slaying. It’s long been believed the killings were connected to a rivalry between the two rappers.
