One of the last living witnesses to the 1996 killing of rapper, Tupac Shakur, has been arrested in the Las Vegas-area, United States, in a long-awaited breakthrough in a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public ever since the hip-hop icon was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip 27 years ago.
According to ABC News, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was taken into custody early Friday morning, on suspicion of murder, according to two officials with first-hand knowledge of the arrest. They were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of an expected indictment later Friday.
It wasn’t immediately clear from court records if Davis has an attorney who can comment on his behalf. Davis hasn’t responded to multiple phone and text messages from The Associated Press seeking comment or an interview in the more than two months since police raided his wife’s home July 17 in nearby Henderson. Documents said police were looking for items “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”
Police reported collecting multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two “tubs containing photographs” and a copy of Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”
Davis has long been known to investigators and has himself admitted in interviews and in his 2019 memoir that he was in the Cadillac from which the gunfire erupted during the September 1996 drive-by shooting.
Shakur was gunned down when he was 25. He was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight and they waiting at a red light when the Cadillac pulled up next to them.
The rapper’s death came as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. Nominated six times for a Grammy Award, Shakur is still largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.
In his memoir, Davis said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped the weapon 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.
Anderson died two years later. He denied any involved in Shakur’s death