The mugshot of the person arrested for 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur has been released by the Las Vegas police department.
According to investigators, Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis, 60, was detained Friday morning, September 30, in Las Vegas. As part of the ongoing investigation into the incident, his wife’s Henderson house was searched in July.
25 years old 2pac Shakur was shot and killed while leaving a boxing match on the Las Vegas Strip.
His premature demise has sparked conspiracy theories and a multi-decade probe.
At a Friday news conference, authorities painted Davis as the ringmaster of a plot to kill Shakur as retaliation after an attack on his nephew.
Davis has long placed himself at the scene of the crime, saying he was in the front seat of the white Cadillac that came up beside Shakur’s car when shots rang out from the back seat, killing the musician. The rapper was shot four times and died six days later.
“For 27 years, the family of Tupac Shakur has been waiting for justice,” said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill at the news conference.
“The investigation started on the night of September 7th, 1996,” McMahill said. “It is far from over. It has taken countless hours, really decades, of work by the men and women of our homicide section to get to where we are today.”
Jason Johansson, the police department’s homicide lieutenant, said the murder was a “retaliatory” attack after a conflict between two gangs based in Compton, California. Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight, the former CEO of Death Row Records, were affiliated with the Mob Piru gang in Compton, while Davis was affiliated with the Southside Compton Crips, according to Johansson.
Shakur was in Las Vegas to see Mike Tyson box at the MGM Grand Hotel. Members of the Southside Compton Crips, including Davis and his nephew Orlando Anderson, also attended the event.
“As both groups were leaving the fight, members of Death Row Records spotted Orlando Anderson near an elevator bank inside the MGM and at that time they began to kick and punch him near that elevator bank,” said Johansson, showing hotel surveillance footage of the fight. Shakur and Knight were visible among the men who attacked Anderson.
“Little did anyone know that it is this incident right here that would ultimately lead to the retaliatory shooting and death of Tupac Shakur,” he said.
