Nearly 30 years have passed since the drive-by shooting in Las Vegas that took the life of iconic hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. And now, the self-proclaimed “gangster” responsible for his death, Duane “Keefe D” Davis, has made his first court appearance. Dressed in a dark-blue jail uniform and plastic orange slippers, the 60-year-old Davis stood shackled at the Wednesday hearing in Clark County. However, the hearing was cut short as Davis requested a postponement to secure legal representation in Las Vegas. Though Shakur’s stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, was not present at the hearing, he has been closely following the case developments from his Los Angeles home, while also managing his family’s expectations.
Davis was arrested near his Henderson home, a suburb of Las Vegas, just last week. Shortly after, a grand jury indictment charging him with murder was unsealed in Clark County District Court. According to police and prosecutors, Davis orchestrated the drive-by shooting that resulted in Shakur’s death and the injury of rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight on September 7, 1996.
Marc DiGiacomo, a chief deputy district attorney in Clark County, claimed that Davis was the on-ground commander who ordered Shakur and Knight’s killing as retaliation for an assault on Davis’ nephew. Davis has long been a suspect in the case and even confessed to his involvement in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.” His public statements reignited the investigation into Shakur’s death.
Interestingly, Davis had also admitted his role in Shakur’s murder to investigators in 2009 while they were looking into the killing of rapper Biggie Smalls. Though Davis received immunity for his 2009 statements, everything he said outside the interview room can be used against him.
While the evidence from Davis’ admission to the Los Angeles police cannot be legally admissible in Nevada, prosecutors will need to proceed with caution in relying on this evidence to argue their case. This situation is reminiscent of comedian Bill Cosby’s conviction for drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. Cosby was released in 2021 after it was discovered that the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office had violated a prior agreement not to prosecute him.
The prosecutors claim that Shakur’s killing was a result of the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry within the “gangsta rap” genre, similar to Smalls’ death. Tensions escalated in Las Vegas after a brawl between Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand hotel-casino. Both Shakur and Knight, along with their respective entourages, attended a heavyweight championship boxing match before the fight broke out. Ultimately, Shakur and Knight found themselves caught in gunfire while waiting at a red light on the Las Vegas Strip.
Davis has claimed that he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac, and it was his nephew in the back seat who fired the shots that killed Shakur. Shakur was fatally wounded and died a week later at the age of 25, while Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment but survived. Currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for the killing of a Compton businessman, Knight is the only other surviving member from the car that night. Anderson died in a 1998 shooting, Smith passed away in 2004, and Brown was killed in a 2015 shooting in Compton.
With the details surrounding Shakur’s death resurfacing after almost three decades, the case continues to captivate the public.
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