Duane Davis arrested in connection with Tupac Shakur killing

Las Vegas police have announced an arrest in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, was taken into custody early Friday morning in connection with the shooting death of the rapper, authorities said. An indictment is expected to be unsealed later Friday.

Shakur was gunned down nearly three decades ago while riding in a BMW driven by Marion “Suge” Knight. Knight, then-owner of Shakur’s record label, was leading a procession of luxury vehicles past the MGM Grand Hotel and Caesars Palace on their way to a new nightclub.

A black BMW, riddled with bullet holes, is seen in a Las Vegas police impound lot. Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot while riding in the car driven by Death Row Records chairman Marion “Suge” Knight. He was shot Sept. 7, 1996, and died several days later at age 25.

(Lennox McLendon / Associated Press)

It was after 11 p.m. that Saturday when the BMW stopped at Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a block from the Vegas Strip, authorities said. Shakur was flirting with women in a nearby car, unaware that a white Cadillac had quietly pulled alongside the BMW. A gunman inside the Cadillac reached out and pointed a semiautomatic pistol straight at Shakur, according to police and court records.

Four gunshots struck Shakur and another grazed Knight, authorities said. Shakur died from his injuries six days later on Sept. 13. He was 25.

Despite numerous investigations by Las Vegas and Los Angeles police as well as federal law enforcement agencies, no one had previously been arrested in the killing.

Las Vegas police SWAT officers, some carrying shields, enter a home on July 17, 2023, in the nearby city of Henderson, Nev., in connection with the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

(Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department / Associated Press)

Police put renewed interest in the shooting in recent months.

In July, police seized .40-caliber cartridges, computers, photos and other materials from the home of a gang member who said he was in the car from which the deadly shots were fired in 1996, records show.

Police searched Davis’ home in Henderson, Nev., in July using a warrant that allowed them to seize materials connected to the shooting, according to the warrant approved by Clark County Judge Jacqueline M. Bluth.

In his book, “Compton Street Legend,” Davis described his activities in the South Side Compton Crips gang and said he was inside the white Cadillac that pulled alongside the black BMW in which Shakur was riding near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996, when the rapper was shot.

Davis also said he is the uncle of Orlando Anderson, another Crips member who was identified early on as a suspect in Shakur’s slaying and who was also in the Cadillac along with two other men that night. Anderson was killed in a gang shootout in Compton a year and a half after Shakur’s death.