Grand jury indicts Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis in Tupac Shakur homicide
Metro police raid residence in July
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Twenty-seven years after the dying of rapper Tupac Shakur, a Las Vegas-area grand jury has indicted a person with the icon’s homicide, the 8 Information Now Investigators confirmed Friday.
“Finally, our persistence on this investigation paid off,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division Lt. Jason Johansson mentioned Friday throughout a information convention.
He mentioned Metro detectives had a number of details about the crime however didn’t have the required proof till lately to arrest 60-year-old Duane “Keffe D” Davis. A Clark County grand jury voted to indict him on a cost of homicide with a lethal weapon with a gang enhancement. Police arrested Davis early Friday close to his residence, prosecutors mentioned.
Davis wrote a guide and did a number of interviews the place he mentioned he was within the automobile with the one who shot Shakur and report government Suge Knight close to the Las Vegas Strip in September 1996. Shakur died six days later from his accidents.
Through the grand jury return listening to on Friday, Chief Deputy District Lawyer Marc DiGiacomo mentioned Davis’ public statements implicated him, including Davis allegedly ordered Shakur’s dying.
“At the moment justice can be served within the homicide of Tupac Shakur,” Clark County District Lawyer Steve Wolfson mentioned. “I do know lots of people have been watching and ready for this present day.”
The taking pictures of Shakur on the intersection of Flamingo Street and Koval Lane adopted a combat earlier within the evening. Within the hours earlier than the homicide, Shakur’s group reportedly attacked Orlando Anderson, a member of a rival gang.
In July, Las Vegas Metro police searched a Henderson residence as a part of the investigation, the 8 Information Now Investigators first reported. The search close to Interstate 11 and Wagon Wheel Drive concerned paperwork, private objects and ammunition belonging to Davis.
Police additionally seized photographs and electronics. Neighbors advised 8 Information Now {that a} member of the family of Davis’ lived within the residence, although Davis’ title and the house’s handle had been written on the warrant.
Movies of the July 17 raid present police speaking to 2 folks as they exit the house. The person within the movies seems to be Davis.
Davis has mentioned he and Anderson had been within the automobile that pulled side-by-side to Shakur’s after the combat. Somebody within the again seat then fired a gun, Davis mentioned.
Anderson died in a taking pictures in 1998. Davis has publicly mentioned he’s Anderson’s uncle. Nobody else who was within the shooter’s automobile, aside from Davis, is alive.
Davis made a number of public statements concerning the evening of the taking pictures, together with in TV interviews and in a 2019 guide titled “Compton Avenue Legend: Infamous Keffe D’s Avenue-Stage Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Loss of life Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops.”
“Tupac made an erratic transfer and commenced to achieve down beneath his seat,” Davis writes within the guide. “It was the primary and solely time in my life that I might relate to the police command, ‘Maintain your fingers the place I can see them.’ As an alternative, Pac pulled out a strap, and that’s when the fireworks began. Certainly one of my guys from the again seat grabbed the Glock and began bustin’ again.”
“Once we pulled up, I used to be within the entrance seat,” Davis mentioned in a 2018 BET interview. “Occur to see my buddy, Suge.”
“You mentioned the photographs got here from the again,” the interviewer asks Davis within the BET video. “Who shot Tupac?”
“Going to maintain it for the code of the streets,” Davis mentioned. “It simply got here from the backseat, bro.”
It was unclear Friday why the case was abruptly transferring forward after greater than twenty years.
“The older your case will get as a prosecutor, the weaker your case will get,” former Clark County prosecutor Thomas Moskal mentioned. “Witnesses, they go lacking, they go away, they die, their recollections fade. Proof isn’t preserved. You’ll be able to’t return and now begin retesting issues from the crime scene. if one thing wasn’t completed, it wasn’t completed.”
Moskal mentioned he anticipated prosecutors to make use of Davis’ personal statements towards him.
“They’ve his personal statements saying he was there,” Moskal mentioned. “He’s going to need to make the argument that both, ‘I wasn’t there and I lied the entire time’ or ‘I didn’t know what was occurring and I lied the entire time.’ However how do you overcome that? Principally, he must take that stand and say, ‘I lied earlier than consider me now.’”
Davis refers to himself as “Keffe D” in his guide. He’s typically additionally known as “Keefe D” or “Keefy D.”
There isn’t a statute of limitations for when prosecutors can file homicide fees in Nevada. Police have by no means filed fees in reference to Shakur’s homicide.
Davis was being held with out bail and was anticipated to look in court docket Wednesday for his arraignment.