Las Vegas Police Make Arrest in Shooting of Tupac Shakur

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. 

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, Nevada on July 17, 2023, as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation," 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 hard drive, 'documentary documents,' a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, 'purported marijuana,' several .40-caliber bullets, two 'tubs containing photographs' and a copy of Davis' 2019 tell-all memoir, 'Compton Street Legend,'" according to the AP. 

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 the room when Davis confessed instead to his involvement in the 1996 murder of 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 a recent interview. "People have been yearning for him to be arrested for a long time. It's never been unsolved in our minds. It's been unprosecuted."