A former gang leader goes on trial Monday, August 9, in Las Vegas over the decades-old murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, nearly 30 years after one of America’s most high-profile unresolved killings.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, is accused of ordering the killing and providing the gun used in the drive-by shooting that fatally wounded Shakur on September 7, 1996.
Davis faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
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The proceedings, expected to last around a month, may not establish who actually fired the shots that killed the hip-hop star. Prosecutors will instead seek to prove that Davis played a central role in orchestrating the attack.
Shakur, also known as 2Pac, was 25 when he was killed. His death became one of the most famous cold cases in US music history, fuelling decades of speculation about who was responsible and why.
What happened the night Tupac Shakur was shot?
Shakur was in Las Vegas to attend a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand on September 7, 1996.
After the fight, Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight were involved in an altercation with Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’s nephew and a member of the South Side Compton Crips.
Prosecutors say the confrontation was retaliation over an alleged earlier assault on a Death Row employee and that Davis subsequently sought revenge.
Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and others pulled up alongside the car carrying Shakur and Knight. Shots were fired from the Cadillac, critically injuring Shakur.
The rapper died six days later, on September 13, 1996.
Why was Duane Davis arrested decades later?
The investigation stalled for decades because of a lack of evidence, but renewed attention was drawn to the case following the 2019 publication of Davis’s memoir.
In the book, Davis recounted being in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and said he handed a pistol to those sitting in the back. He did not identify who fired the shots.
The other people believed to have been inside the Cadillac that night have since died.
Davis had previously made similar remarks to reporters, but his public statements and memoir later became significant to investigators. He was arrested in September 2023 and charged in connection with Shakur’s killing.
Davis has pleaded not guilty and has since disputed his earlier accounts.
“I’m innocent. I ain’t killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody,” he told ABC News in a March 2025 interview from prison. “They don’t have no evidence against me. They can’t even put me in Las Vegas.”
Davis now claims he was in Los Angeles on the night Shakur was shot and says his memoir was embellished by his co-author to boost book sales.
“I just gave him details of my life,” Davis said. “And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.”
Ahead of the trial, Davis’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to prevent the memoir from being introduced as evidence, along with statements he made during a 2008 police interview as a witness to the killing.
East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry
The trial is also expected to revisit one of the most notorious periods in hip-hop history, the rivalry between the East and West Coast scenes during the 1990s.
Shakur, known for hits including California Love and All Eyez on Me, was signed to Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.
The label, founded by Knight, was locked in a highly publicised rivalry with East Coast label Bad Boy Records, founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs and home to Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace.
Wallace was shot and killed in Los Angeles in March 1997, around six months after Shakur’s death.
Prosecutors say Death Row Records was protected by Mob Piru, a Los Angeles gang affiliated with the wider Bloods alliance, while Bad Boy Records had hired members of the rival South Side Compton Crips as bodyguards.
Tupac’s family seeks further accountability
The trial begins with jury selection, which is expected to take about a week.
Whatever the eventual verdict, Shakur’s family has indicated that questions surrounding his death remain.
In May, the rapper’s stepbrother Maurice Shakur filed a wrongful death lawsuit in civil court.
“There remain individuals who were involved in Tupac’s murder who, for 30 years, have not been held accountable for their crimes,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit also cites the documentary miniseries Sean Combs: The Reckoning, which features a police interview in which Davis alleges that Combs offered him $1 million to kill Shakur.
Combs has previously denied involvement in Shakur’s killing.
Source: Khaleej Times
