Man with alleged ties to Tupac Shakur’s death indicted on murder charge

It's a long-awaited break in the case that's fascinated the public ever since Tupac Shakur was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip 27 years ago

Just over 27 years to the day after hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting, a suspect was arrested and charged with murder in Las Vegas on Friday, a long-sought development in one of the most high-profile open investigations in recent memory.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told a press conference that Duane “Keefe D” Davis was arrested Friday morning. An indictment was handed down by a Nevada grand jury later that day, Clark County District Attorney Steven B. Wolfson said.

“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,” McMahill said.

“This investigation began on the night of Sept. 7, 1996. It is far from over.”

Davis, 60, is the only living person suspected to have been involved in the shooting. He has long denied being the one who pulled the trigger but has admitted publicly — including in his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend — to being in the vehicle that pulled up next to Shakur’s that fateful night.

Wolfson told reporters Davis was being charged with open murder with use of a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement for his alleged involvement in the killing.

“We have an aiding and abetting statute which provides that if you help somebody commit a crime, you can be equally as guilty,” he said.

Las Vegas police Lt. Jason Johansson went further, describing Davis as the “shot caller for this group of individuals” who “orchestrated the plan that was carried out to commit this crime.”