More than 26 years after the drive-by shooting and death of rapper Tupac Shakur, an arrest has been made in connection to the incident.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis was arrested by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. (LVMPD) in Henderson, Nevada Friday and indicted on one count of murder with use of a weapon, with a gang enhancement.

"For 27 years, the family of Tupac Shakur has been waiting for justice,"  LVMPD Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in a press conference Friday. "It has taken countless hours and many decades of work by the men and women of our homicide section to get to where we are today. While I know there's been many people who did not believe that the murder of Tupac Shakur was not important to this police department, I'm here to tell you that was simply not the case. It was not the case back then and it is not the case today."



In a 2019 memoir titled Compton Street Legend: Notorious Keffe D’s Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops, Davis spoke about the Shakur 1996 shooting, which famously occurred after the Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Keefe D wrote that he and former CEO of Death Row Records, Marion Hugh "Suge" Knight, were the only living witnesses of Shakur's shooting.

LVMPD investigators recalled the night of the shooting, pointing to MGM surveillance footage that showed a fight involving Shakur and gang members of the Southside Compton Crips, which Davis was a part of. The video, which had been widely circulated after the incident, showed Shakur and Knight fighting with Davis' nephew Orlando Anderson.

The investigators said the fight led to the shooting, as Shakur and Knight left the scene and Davis allegedly plotted the shooting.

It is believed that there were four men inside the Cadillac vehicle where the gunfire came from, with Davis at the front passenger seat, Terrence "T-Brown" driving, and Deandre Smith and Anderson in the back seats.


Investigators said all of the information was gathered within months of the shooting, but there was not enough evidence to form a case. It was not until Davis began speaking on the incident publicly in 2018, as well as in his memoir, that police were able to present charges.

"In our section, we knew at this time that this was likely our last time to take a run at this case, to successfully solve this case and bring forth a criminal charge," LVMPD Homicide Lt. Jason Johansson said Friday. "We've conducted countless interviews, and corroborated numerous facts that were not only consistent with the crime scene on the night of the incident, but also corroborated and were consistent with the sequence of events that night."

A hearing will be held to determine a jury trial date for Davis.

Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal will be prosecuting the case.

Shakur was born in New York before relocating to California in 1988. His music reflected Los Angeles culture and stories, to the tune of more than 75 million records sold.

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