A former gang leader (60 years old) is accused of contributing to the murder of the hip-hop legend. Early in 1998, he placed himself at the crime scene.
Tupac Shakur was shot and killed in 1996. He is considered one of the greatest rappers of all time. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award six times and has sold more than 75 million records.
The short version
- Former gang leader Duane “Kevy D” Davis, 60, has been arrested and charged with the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Davis is accused of organizing the killing and providing the weapon used, but not of shooting himself.
- According to police, the motive was a fight in which Davis’ nephew was beaten by Shakur and his friends.
- Davis’ statements about his role in the murder led police to reopen the case, more than 25 years after the murder.
The summary is created with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and quality guaranteed by Aftenposten journalists.
Who killed Tupac? This question remained unanswered for several years. The unsolved murder has been the basis for countless conspiracy theories. Some went so far as to claim that the rapper is still alive.
But last week, police in Las Vegas called a press conference. They then arrested the man who organized the murder itself, according to police.
Here’s what we know about the 60-year-old man who was arrested and charged with the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Self-proclaimed gangster
On Friday, police arrested Duane “Kevy D” Davis in Las Vegas. A few hours later, the District Attorney’s Office announced that the 60-year-old was charged with murder using a weapon.
Despite countless speculation, evidence, and repeated media coverage, no charges were ever brought for Shakur’s murder.
Davis is the last survivor of four people identified by police early on as suspects in the case. He is not accused of being the one who shot and killed Shakur, but he was in the car in which the killer was sitting.
It is not known how Davis responds to the accusations.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested Friday and charged with the murder of Tupac Shakur.
The Las Vegas State’s Attorney’s Office believes Davis obtained the gun used to kill Shakur. Which almost killed Marion Knight, founder of Shakur’s Death Row Records label.
Davis himself has spoken about his role in the murder in interviews and in his autobiography. There he said he sat in the front seat of a white Cadillac, which at a traffic light pulled up to the car in which Shakur was sitting. He writes that at least one of the people in the car fired the shots that ultimately killed Tupac New York times.
Police describe Davis, a self-proclaimed gangster, as the person who made the decisions in the car. Mark DiGiacomo, one of the prosecutors in the case, said Friday that Davis was the “boss on the ground” who “ordered” the killing of Shakur and the attempted murder of Knight.
Tupac Shakur (left) and Marion Knight (right) were in the car that was attacked in 1996 after a boxing match in Las Vegas.
The idea
Police said the 1996 murder was due to a conflict between two gangs based in Compton, California.
Shakur and Knight were associated with Compton’s Mob Peru, while Davis belonged to the Southside Compton Crips, he wrote. CNN.
In 2019, Davis published his autobiography. In the book, he describes an argument that ended with Shakur and his friends beating up Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lynn” Anderson, after a boxing match in Las Vegas.
When Davis heard about the attack on his nephew, he allegedly began the process of obtaining weapons and retaliating against Knight and Shakur, Las Vegas Police Detective Jason Johansson said during Saturday’s news conference.
“He gave us the green light to do something,” Davis says in the book.
It is said that a quarrel between Tupac Shakur and his friends was the motive behind the murder.
I got the murder weapon
After obtaining a gun from a “close acquaintance,” Davis, his nephew and two others left in a white Cadillac. Davis then allegedly gave the gun to one of the people in the back seat. Eventually, they were able to track down Shakur. At a traffic light, they got up next to Tupac’s black BMW and fired several shots at the car. The rapper was infected four times and died six days later.
Several shots were fired at Shakur’s black BMW. The rapper died six days later, while Marion Knight survived.
Davis’ nephew was one of two people in the back seat, but it is not clear from the indictment against Davis who fired the shots. Anderson died in 1998, but always denied any involvement in the murder.
Davis says in his autobiography that the four men left the car after the shooting and returned to the hotel. The next day they got into the car and returned to California. They washed and repainted the car. Then there was no more evidence to be found, according to the 60-year-old.
I got involved in the case
Why should Davis be arrested and charged now, more than 25 years after the murder? This is largely due to Davis himself, according to police.
Davis himself has admitted his involvement. He has done so in several interviews and in his own book. As early as 1998, he spoke of being in the car that attacked Shakur.
He was also with one Netflix documentary in 2018He spoke in detail about many of the events that preceded the murder.
– He began to publicly brag about his role in the murder, prompting Las Vegas police to reexamine the case again. In practice, he inserted himself into the case, says Greg Kading, one of the investigators who previously worked on the case. CNN.
The “new” investigation led, among other things, to a police raid on one of Davis’ homes in July. The police confiscated several tablets, phones and five computers. Several memory sticks, hard drives, photographs and a copy of a magazine about Shakur were also seized.
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