Former Gang Leader Charged in 1996 Tupac Shakur Killing

LAS VEGAS – A grand jury in Nevada has indicted Duane Davis, known as 'Keffe D,' on a murder charge stemming from the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. Police arrested Davis on Friday, September 29, 2023, in Las Vegas, nearly 27 years after Shakur's death.

Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur. Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles Police Department detective who investigated the case, stated Davis has publicly implicated himself in Shakur's death on multiple occasions.

Davis, a self-proclaimed former gang leader, published a memoir in 2019 titled *Compton Street Legend*. In the book, he described being in the Cadillac from which shots were fired at Shakur's car. He stated he handed the weapon to his nephew, Orlando Anderson, who he claimed fired the shots. Anderson denied involvement in Shakur's killing before his own death in 1998.

Davis later retracted some of his memoir's claims, stating in an interview with the *New York Times* that his book was largely fictionalized for entertainment. He has not publicly confessed to pulling the trigger himself.

Authorities had previously investigated Davis in connection with the murder. In 2008, he reportedly told federal agents during an interview that he was in the car involved in the shooting. He stated he received immunity from prosecution for those statements. However, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo indicated that the immunity agreement only applied to the content of his 2008 interview and not subsequent statements or actions.

Shakur died on September 13, 1996, six days after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. He was 25 years old. The shooting occurred following a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand Hotel. Shakur was riding in a car driven by Marion 'Suge' Knight, head of Death Row Records, when a white Cadillac pulled alongside them and fired shots.

Knight, who served time for a probation violation stemming from a fight preceding the shooting, stated he would not testify in any trial related to Shakur's death. Knight told ABC News, "I ain't gonna be used to send nobody to prison. I'm not that guy. I never was that guy."