A 27-year-long mystery may be solved.
A man has been arrested and charged in relation to the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
On Friday, news broke that Las Vegas police had arrested Duane Davis, aka Keefe D or Keffe D, who has long said he was in the car of the person who shot at the rapper, killing him. He was 25.
This case has been a mystery for both investigators and the public for the past decades, spawning countless theories and documentaries.
Davis was arrested early Friday morning, but the exact charges were not immediately made clear. The prosecutor described Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” of the killing, according to the Associated Press.
So, who is Davis?
Davis, 60 and a former gang member, has not kept his connection to the case a secret. In 2018, after he was diagnosed with cancer, he gave details to BET about the drive-by, including that he was in the Cadillac that the back-seat shooter was also in during September 1996 murder. He also once claimed that his nephew Orlando Anderson shot Tupac. Anderson died in 1998.
Davis even has a 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” in which he spells out what he claims went down. In his book, Davis described himself as one of the last living witnesses to the fatal shooting. He alleged that he first spoke about it in 2010, during a closed-door meeting with federal and local authorities. At the time, he was 46 and facing life in prison on drug charges.
“They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out,” he wrote.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years investigating the Shakur killing and wrote a book about it, told the AP that Davis’ arrest is “so long overdue. 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.”
He also told the Hollywood Reporter, “All the other direct conspirators or participants are all dead. Keefe D is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac.”
This arrest happened two months after Las Vegas police raided Davis’ wife’s home. According to the AP, documents said police were looking for items “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”
Police reportedly collected a slew of items, including computers, a cellphone, a hard drive, several .40-caliber bullets and two “tubs containing photographs.”
A source told the US Sun, “The homicide team did not enter into this investigation lightly. They knew that the world would be watching if they took any action against Keefe. They do not want to make any missteps.”
Another source told the outlet that Davis’ “gloating” ultimately “talked himself into huge legal trouble. Who knows what Keefe will do. Maybe he might try to negotiate a plea deal. The attention globally on the DA and police department will be extreme.”
At the time of his death, Shakur was feuding with rival rapper Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G., who was fatally shot just six months later, in March 1997 at the age of 24. His murder remains unsolved.