Duane “Keffe D” Davis, one of the last living witnesses to the fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, has been charged with murder and use of a deadly weapon over the 1996 killing. The charges represent a long-awaited breakthrough in a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public ever since the hip-hop icon was gunned down 27 years ago.
According to reports, Davis has long been known to investigators and has himself admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was in the Cadillac from which the gunfire erupted during the September 1996 drive-by shooting. In his memoir, Davis said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped the gun used in the killing into the backseat, from where he said the shots were fired. Davis implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the backseat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a casino brawl with the rapper shortly before the shooting. After the casino brawl, “Mr Davis formulated a plan to exact revenge upon Mr Knight and Mr Shakur” in his nephew’s defence, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo. Anderson died two years later. He denied any involvement in Shakur’s death.
Widely hailed as one of the greatest rappers of all time, Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September 1996 at age 25.
The charges were revealed hours after Davis, 60, was arrested on Friday morning while on a walk near his home, according to DiGiacomo.
