Duane Davis, Newly Arrested in Connection With Tupac’s Murder, Once Said He Was the ‘Only One Alive’ Who Knew the Truth About the Crime

The Messenger has confirmed that on Sept. 29, Duane Davis, a.k.a. Keffe D, has been arrested in connection with the murder of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur. A Nevada grand jury indicted Davis on one count of murder with a deadly weapon, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo announced in court.

Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas 27 years ago, on Sept. 13, 1996, and Davis has long been connected with the case.

In 2011, former LAPD Detective Greg Kading, an investigator in the murder of Notorious B.I.G., released a book alleging that Sean "Diddy" Combs hired Davis to kill Shakur for $1 million.

Duane Keith "Keffe D" Davis, a known member of the California South Side Compton Crips gang, later appeared in the 2018 USA documentary Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G., revealing he was in the car at the time of the shooting and knew the person who killed Shakur, but "street code" wouldn't allow him to share the name.

"I was a Compton kingpin, drug dealer, I'm the only one alive who can really tell you [the] story about the Tupac killing," he says in the film. "People have been pursuing me for 20 years. I'm coming out now because I have cancer, and I have nothing else to lose. All I care about now is the truth."

Davis has discussed the case in many other interviews and also penned the book Compton Street Legend. In a description of the book, Davis wrote, "The infamous Suge Knight, former Death Row Records CEO, and I are the only living eyewitnesses to the deadly confrontation on the Las Vegas strip between the occupants of our two vehicles. A violent confrontation that led to the deaths of two of Hip-Hop’s biggest stars (Tupac Shakur & Christopher ‘Notorious B.I.G.’ Wallace) and changed Hip-Hop history forever."

In a passage from the book about the shooting excerpted by Rolling Stone, Davis wrote, "Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat. It was the first and only time in my life that I could relate to the police command. 'Keep your hands where I can see them.' Instead, Pac pulled out a strap, and that’s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin' back."

Davis' late nephew Orlando Anderson was named an early suspect, along with his uncle. Anderson was allegedly a Crips member, as well, and was involved in a fight with Shakur and his entourage hours before the shooting. Davis claimed that Anderson fired the shots, according to leaked tapes. Anderson was killed in 1998 in an unrelated gang shooting.