IRL

Las Vegas Police Make Arrest in Shooting of Tupac Shakur

The hip-hop icon’s murder has gone unsolved for nearly three decades.
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Las Vegas police on Friday arrested a man in connection with the Tupac Shakur homicide investigation. The Associated Press reports the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department arrested Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, early Friday, more than 27 years after the rapper was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip in a drive-by shooting on September 7th, 1996. Shakur, 25, died a week later on September 13th. Davis was arrested “on suspicion of murder,” according to two officials with first-hand knowledge of the charge. According to the AP, the officials could not speak publicly on the matter ahead of an indictment expected later on Friday.ย 

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The first-ever arrest in Shakur’s case comes weeks after the LVMPD raided a neighboring Henderson home in connection with the “California Love” rapper’s murder. “LVMPD can confirm a search warrant was served in Henderson, Nevadaon July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicideinvestigation,” Las Vegas police said in a statement in July.

On July 20th, the AP reported that police searched the home where Davis and his wife, Paula Clemons, resided for items “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.” Police seized “multiple computers, a cellphone and harddrive, ‘documentarydocuments,’ a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, ‘purportedmarijuana,’ several .40-caliber bullets, two ‘tubs containingphotographs’ and a copy of Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir, ‘Compton StreetLegend,’” according to the AP.ย 

The report described Davis as the uncle of the late Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, a known Shakur rival, who denied involvement with the drive-by shooting that happened at East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane on the Las Vegas Strip.

In 2019, retired Los Angeles police detective Greg Kading alleged to CBS News Los Angeles that Shakur’s murder was “solved.” According to CBS News LA, Davis was “questioned by[the Los Angeles Police Department] in connection with the murder of Biggie Smalls.Kading was in theroom when Davis confessed instead to his involvementin the 1996 murderof Shakur.”

“[Orlando Anderson] leaned over and rolled down the window and popped him,” Davis reportedly said in a recording from a 2009 interview. According to Kading, Davis claimed his aim “was not good enough” and handed the gun to Anderson, who allegedly fired the shots. Anderson died in a 1998 shooting in Compton, California.

“It’s so long overdue,” Kading told The Associated Press of Davis in arecent interview. “People have been yearning for him to be arrested for along time. It’s never been unsolved in our minds. It’s beenunprosecuted.”