The alleged mastermind of Tupac Shakur’s murder is going on trial nearly 30 years after his killing, raising hopes for some closure and justice after his killers escaped prosecution for decades and several of those allegedly involved have since died.
Former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested in September 2023 and charged with murder over allegations that he organised and directed the killing, including by providing the gun used in the attack. Prosecutors describe Davis as the “shot caller” behind the shooting. Davis has pleaded not guilty.
Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on September 7, 1996, while sitting in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Suge Knight. He died from his injuries six days later on September 13 at the age of 25.
Prosecutors allege that the killing was retaliation for a fight earlier that night at the MGM Grand, where Shakur and members of his entourage assaulted Davis’s nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson. Davis was allegedly travelling in the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired together with Anderson, Deandrae Smith and Terry Brown. All three other occupants are now dead.
Davis’s own interviews and his 2019 memoir became central to the renewed investigation after he publicly acknowledged being inside the Cadillac and described providing the weapon. His defence now disputes the prosecution’s interpretation of those statements.
Six months after Tupac’s murder, his former friend and rival Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was also killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997. Both killings became closely associated with the violent East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry of the 1990s, although Biggie’s murder remains unsolved and no court has established that his killing was retaliation for Tupac’s murder.
Jury selection in Davis’s trial began on August 10, with opening statements beginning today. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
Feature photo from Britannica.
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