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For years, people have wondered who would have wanted the rapper and actor dead in 1996. The Las Vegas police now believe a gang leader was behind the plot.
Inspiring rap rivalry rumors and media attention about who would want the influential hip-hop musician and actor dead, Tupac Shakur’s drive-by shooting death in Las Vegas has been a high-profile cold case for almost 30 years.
Next, a major development: Duane Keith Davis, one of four people believed to have been in the white Cadillac that pursued Shakur on September 7, 1996, was arrested by Las Vegas police on Friday.
After the former Los Angeles gang boss published his 2019 autobiography, “Compton Street Legend,” in which he brags about being an eyewitness to the shooting, a grand jury indicted him on murder charges.
At a press conference on Friday, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said, “Tupac Shakur is a music legend, and this community and worldwide have been wanting justice for Tupac.” And today is the day when we finally do it.
However, this moment had been building up for a very long time.
Many people in the Black community and Shakur’s loved ones were doubtful of the inquiry and wondered why it seemed to stall year after year.
Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap was written by University of Connecticut history professor Jeffrey Ogbar, who says the story has enthralled a generation.
He argued that an arrest, while better late than never, might not bring to justice those most responsible for the crime.
The murder of Shakur
Using the stage moniker 2Pac, the New York-born, Baltimore-raised, and California-based rapper scored hits in the 1990s with songs including “Keep Ya Head Up,” “Dear Mama,” and “California Love.”
He made his film debut at age 20 in “Juice,” and he went on to co-star with Janet Jackson in “Poetic Justice.”
Shakur was shot on the night he and his label founder, Marion “Suge” Knight, went to see a prizefight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.
Shakur rode along with Knight in his BMW. A white Cadillac drew up next them and opened fire at 11:15 p.m. as they waited at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip on their way to a club owned by Knight, according to investigators.
Six days after being shot four times (including once in the chest), Shakur succumbed to his wounds. He was 25.
Having already experienced violence in the past, the rapper wrote about his experiences with poverty, police brutality, and his self-proclaimed “thug life” in reflective songs. During a heist at a Manhattan recording studio in 1994, he was shot five times.
Ogbar lamented that Tupac was a victim. He wasn’t raised in a mafia environment, but after hanging around with Death Row inmates, he took on some of their values.
Defying Difficulties
On the night that Shakur was assassinated, authorities were aware of but chose to ignore a disturbance.
At the MGM Grand, where Tyson and Seldon were fighting, Shakur got into a fight with a man later identified by California authorities as Orlando Anderson, a member of a rival gang in Compton.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2015 that after an investigation of police activities, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s homicide commander stated that his department was unaware of who Anderson was or why this fact was significant.
According to the homicide commander, there is “no reason… to believe” that the altercation is related to the shooting.
Anderson, who denied any role in Shakur’s murder and was killed in a gang battle two years later, was never aggressively pursued by authorities. According to the Times, police allegedly failed to interview a member of Shakur’s entourage who claimed to have seen the attackers.
Las Vegas police announced Davis’ arrest on Friday, saying he “devised a plan” to get a gun and avenge Anderson’s beating at the hands of Shakur and Knight the night of the casino incident. Davis, Anderson’s uncle, was blamed by police for the shooting of Tupac Shakur’s BMW by passengers in the backseat of a Cadillac.
Retired NYPD officer Derrick Parker, who used his knowledge of hip-hop culture to help solve murders in the area, claimed that investigators in Las Vegas lacked familiarity with the local rap scene and gangs, and that the case was hampered by rival law enforcement organizations.
He also noted that there was a lack of trust in law enforcement and the reluctance of potential witnesses to come forward with details. Two other people thought to have been in the Cadillac with Anderson both died in the years after the incident.
Parker said that this was a challenging case. Davis has a high reputation among the locals. Many people were unwilling to oppose him.
Conflict hypothesizing
In the wake of the killing, another story emerged suggesting that Shakur had been murdered as part of an East Coast-West Coast rap feud involving Brooklyn musician Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G. & Biggie Smalls.
Six months after Shakur’s death, when Biggie was shot in a drive-by in Los Angeles on the night of the Soul Train Awards, rumors began circulating that the two were connected. At the Hospital, the medical examiner ruled that he had passed away.
Knight has denied any participation in Biggie’s unsolved murder, despite accusations from some law enforcement officials that he ordered a hit on the “Mo Money Mo Problems” rapper.
There is also the unverified theory that Knight was behind the plot to kill Shakur. Meanwhile, some have jumped on the theory that Shakur may still be alive and that his death was faked.
Prosecutors in Clark County, however, insist that Davis, also known as “Keefy D” or “Keffe D,” acted alone in having Shakur killed. A Henderson, Nevada, residence associated with Davis was the target of a search warrant executed by Las Vegas police in July.
On Friday, Las Vegas police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson told reporters that it was likely their last attempt to file criminal charges in the case.
The police said that Davis had made statements since 2018 that seemed to link him in the crime. He explains that the incident where they jumped on his nephew gave them the “ultimate green light” to act in his autobiography. The game Tupac decided to play was a bad one.
Davis was being detained without bail, and it was unclear if he had legal representation.
A professor of African and African American studies at Duke University stated that, while the case against Shakur is moving forward, any potential trial will almost certainly revive questions about why it took so long to bring his killer to justice.
People, are desperate for closure for this young man after all these years. Tupac was a talented, politically conscious, and imaginative performer in his own right. The potential that he held was never fully realized, unfortunately. And rightly so, actually.
