Tupac Shakur’s Murder: Why It Took So Long to Arrest Duane Davis

For decades, the murder of Tupac Shakur has been one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of the music industry and entertainment world at large. There were theories, documentaries and investigations that came up short, but last week, 27 years later, an arrest was finally made. On Sept. 29, a Nevada grand jury indicted Duane Davis, a.k.a. Keffe D, on charges of murder with a deadly weapon. Davis, who was denied bail, is set to appear at the Clark County Courthouse in Las Vegas on Oct. 19 for his arraignment.

The known Crips gang member has long been connected with the case, but interest in his story re-ignited around 2019 when he released his memoir Compton Street Legend. Davis was also featured 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.

But why, as Tupac's own stepbrother has publicly asked, did it take 27 years to get here?

Details of Tupac Shakur's death

Shakur was killed on Sept. 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The 25-year-old rapper was in the car with Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, at a stoplight, on their way to a nightclub after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand. A white Cadillac pulled up next to their vehicle and a gunman fired 14 shots. Shakur died from his wounds days later, on Sept. 13. The shooting followed a fight in the MGM Grand lobby between Shakur and Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, Davis' nephew and an alleged member of the Crips.

Jason Johansson, a Las Vegas police homicide lieutenant, said during a news conference Friday that Davis "began to devise a plan to obtain a firearm and retaliate against Suge Knight and Mr. Shakur" after hearing about Shakur's brawl with his nephew. Davis obtained a gun "from a close associate" and got into the white Cadillac with Anderson and two others, according to Johansson. They found Shakur and Knight's car and gunshots were fired from Davis' vehicle.

"Duane Davis was the shot-caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime. He orchestrated the plan that was carried out to commit this crime," Johansson said. The indictment against Davis does not specify who pulled the trigger.

Orlando Anderson as an early suspect

Shakur's mother, Afeni Shakur, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Anderson on Sept. 12, 1997, alleging he was responsible for the murder of her son. Days earlier, Anderson filed a lawsuit, claiming he was assaulted by Shakur and Death Row Records employees at the MGM Grand Hotel before Shakur's death. Anderson denied involvement in the killing before dying in a gang-related shooting in 1998.

In a 2011 recorded conversation with former LAPD Detective Greg Kading, Davis claimed that Anderson was the killer: "[Anderson] rolled down the window, and popped him. If they would have drove on my side, I would have popped them. But they was on the other side."

Notorious B.I.G. and Diddy theories

Two years before his death, Shakur was shot and robbed of $40,000 in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan hotel. At the time, Shakur accused rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Sean "Diddy" Combs of having prior knowledge of the shooting, which they denied.

Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Christopher Wallace, was killed in a drive-by shooting six months after Shakur's death, sparking speculation that the two assassinations were linked. Years later, in 2002, a report came out alleging that Wallace agreed to pay the Crips $1 million to murder Shakur and provided the gun. Wallace had been feuding with Shakur, per the report.

Wallace denied involvement in the murder and, to prove his case, produced computerized invoices suggesting he was recording a song in New York City the night of Shakur's murder. The New York Times called the evidence "inconclusive."

In October 2011, Kading released a book positing that Sean "Diddy" Combs was responsible for Shakur's death. Kading alleged that Combs put out a hit on Shakur and Knight, and hired Davis to carry out the shooting for $1 million.

Why did it take so long?

Nobody really knows why it took police 27 years to indict Davis, given that the gangster has spoken openly about the crime for years.

In a 1998 interview with BET, Davis said he was in the front seat of the Cadillac from which the shots were fired. "It just came from the back seat, bro," he claimed. In 2009, Davis admitted to playing a role in the shooting, according to Kading. But his statement couldn't be used as evidence because it was made under a "proffer agreement," Kading told CNN.

Davis detailed the shooting in his 2019 memoir, writing that he hid the Cadillac and the gun before having the vehicle repaired and repainted to return to a rental car company. In a press conference last week, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said Davis' admissions over the last five years, in his book and in the 2018 USA documentary, made the police return to the case. In July, the police obtained a warrant to search Davis' Henderson home, seizing .40-caliber cartridges, computers, photos and more.

"We knew at this time that this was likely the last time to take a run at this case to successfully solve this," McMahill said.

If convicted of first-degree murder, Davis could be given between 50 years to life in prison without parole, or the death penalty.