Tupac Shakur.Photo:Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Al Pereira/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty
Tupac Shakur’s murder hasremained a mysteryfor the better part of three decades — despite the repeated public assertions of a man who says he was in the car from which gunshots rang out and killed the rapper, who was a passenger in another vehicle.
Noting multiple witnesses to the murder, Las Vegas Police Lt. Marc Maston toldThe Washington Postaround the time of the shooting that the case “should be solvable.” But over the ensuing months, while suspects were named, no arrests were ever made.
Despite widespread interest and speculation, the case went cold, with few public pronouncements about its status until last week, when the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reopened the investigation. As part of the investigation, authorities executed a search warrant on July 17 at a one-story beige stucco home in Henderson, Nev. — a home connected to Duane Keith Davis, aka “Keffe D,” the man who has made public statements about being in the car from which somebody fired upon Shakur.
Duane Keith ‘Keffe D’ Davis.BETNetworks/ YouTube
BETNetworks/ YouTube
Tupac performs at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994.Raymond Boyd/Getty
Raymond Boyd/Getty
He released his first album “2Pacalypse Now” in 1991, and over the years rapped about killing police officers in self-defense and took the motto “Thug Life” so seriously he got it tattooed in an arc along his stomach. However, the year he diedhe denounced the lifestyle in interviews: “I lived Thug Life, it was stupid,” he said, adding, “It’s suicidal.”
He also predicted his violent death in another interview that year, saying: “It’s going to happen."
September 7, 1996
On the night of his shooting, Shakur left the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, where he had watched the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight title boxing match. He climbed into a black BMW with Marion “Suge” Knight, the chairman of his record label Death Row Records and a member of the LA street gang Mob Piru and made their way in a fleet of 10 cars toward a nightclub. Shakur waved to fans as he rode down Las Vegas Boulevard.
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But just after 11:15 p.m. and about a quarter of a mile from the casino, a white Cadillac pulled up to Shakur’s car, which was at a red light, and bullets were fired, striking Shakur four times in the head and chest. Shakur was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery, surviving another six days before dying. Knight, who was hit with shrapnel, was also briefly hospitalized.
Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls.Clarence Davis/Getty
Clarence Davis/Getty
Popular legend often places the blame for Shakur’s death on the East Coast - West Coast hip hop feud between Shakur and Wallace, but a law enforcement source previously told PEOPLE that Wallace and Shakur were mere “pawns” in the gang fights between Mob Piru and the Compton Crips.
Reopening the Murder Investigation
But after decades, last week, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department knocked on the Henderson home door, hauling out bins of evidence, according to court records. The police department confirmed the execution of the July 17 search warrant in Henderson “as part of the ongoing Tupac Shakur homicide investigation,” in an emailed statement to PEOPLE. Both police and the courts declined to answer specific questions regarding the search into materials that might connect Davis and Shakur. Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, could not be reached for comment.
Davis, who has called himself a “shot-caller” for the Southside Compton Crips, placed himself in the front seat of the Cadillac and his deceased nephew, Anderson, in the backseatin a 2018 interview for BETNetworks. He said the crew had been looking for Shakur but had given up the search, only happening upon him when the singer stood up in his car, waving from the open roof at women calling his name. The driver made a U-turn, tracing back toward the rapper.
Davis has not been arrested in connection with the case.
source: people.com
