LES VEGAS — A man who prosecutors say ordered the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur was arrested and charged with murder Friday in a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis has long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He is not the accused gunman, but authorities described him at a news conference and in court Friday as the ringleader.
In Nevada, you can be charged with a crime, including murder, if you help someone commit the crime.
“Duane Davis was the accuser of this group of individuals who committed this crime,” said police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson, “and he orchestrated the plan that was carried out.”
Davis himself has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he provided the gun used in the shooting.
Authorities said Friday that Davis’ own public comments revived the investigation.
Davis, now 60, was arrested early Friday while walking near his home outside Las Vegas, hours before prosecutors announced in court that a Nevada grand jury had indicted the self-described “gangster” on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon. He is due in court next week.
The grand jury also voted to add a sentencing enhancement to the gang-related murder charge that could add up to an additional 20 years if convicted.
Watch: Las Vegas police describe investigation that led to arrest in Tupac Shakur’s murder
The grand jury proceedings began in late July and are detailed in hundreds of pages of court transcripts that were released Friday. Jurors have heard testimony from former associates of Davis, friends of Shakur and a list of retired police officers involved early in the case. His testimony highlighted the deep and growing rift between Shakur, Davis and their associates that finally came to a head on the night of September 7, 1996, when Shakur was gunned down near the Strip in las vegas
The first arrest in the case came after Las Vegas police raided Davis’ home in mid-July in the nearby city of Henderson for items they described at the time as “relating to the murder of Tupac Shakur “.
Davis declined an interview request Friday from jail, and court records do not list an attorney available to comment on his behalf. Phone and text messages to Davis and his wife on Friday and in the months following the July 17 search were not returned.
In a statement Friday, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, the rapper’s sister, described the arrest as a victory.
“This is certainly a pivotal moment. The silence of the last 27 years surrounding this case has spoken loudly in our community,” he said. “It is important to me that the world, the country, justice and our people recognize the gravity of the death of this man, my brother, my mother’s son, my father’s son.”
On the night of the shooting, Shakur was riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight. They were waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and shots were fired.
Shakur was shot several times and died a week later at age 25.
Davis, in his memoir, said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had put a gun in the back seat, from where he said the shots were fired.
He implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the back seat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a casino fight with the rapper shortly before the shooting.
“No one knew that this incident right here would ultimately lead to the retaliatory shooting and death of Tupac Shakur,” said Johansson, police Lt.
Anderson died two years later. He denied any involvement in Shakur’s death.
Emails seeking comment from two attorneys who previously represented Knight were not immediately returned. Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment during the shootout, but suffered only minor injuries. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California on an unrelated voluntary manslaughter charge.
On the night of July 17, Las Vegas police quietly surrounded the home where Davis lives with his wife, Paula Clemons. Police surveillance video obtained by the AP showed SWAT officers arresting a man and his wife outside their home illuminated by a swirl of red and blue lights after announcing their presence on a megaphone. The couple’s faces are blurred in the videos.
Police reported seizing several computers, a cell phone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine featuring Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two “tubes containing photographs” and a copy of Davis’ memoir.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years investigating Shakur’s killing and wrote a book about it, said he is not surprised by Davis’ arrest.
“All the other conspirators or direct participants are all dead,” Kading said. “Keffe D is the latest man to be among the individuals who conspired to kill Tupac.”
The rapper’s death came as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, selling an estimated 5 million copies. A six-time Grammy Award nominee, Shakur is still widely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.
English 
Español de Venezuela 