Police in Nevada have arrested a man in connection with the drive-by slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur on the Las Vegas strip 27 years ago, according to media reports citing sources. Charges are expected to be made public later on Friday when a formal indictment is unveiled.
On September 7, 1996, the rapper was shot four times while waiting at a red light in a car with record company executive Suge Knight shortly after leaving a Mike Tyson boxing match. He died of his injuries a week later.
The rapper was 25-years-old at the time of his death, which has become one of the most infamous unsolved murders in the recent history of American popular culture.
According to multiple reports, the arrested man has been identified as Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, though the exact nature of the charges have not yet been revealed. Davis had previously admitted in his 2019 tell-all memoir ‘Compton Street Legend’ that he was in the Cadillac from which the fatal gunshots were fired at Shakur. He has previously stated that he is one of the last surviving witnesses to the shooting.
Davis’ arrest comes two months after his wife’s home was raided by Las Vegas authorities. Police documents indicate that the investigation was “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”
In a 2018 interview he gave after receiving a cancer diagnosis, Davis appeared to implicate his nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, as being involved in the shooting, saying that he was one of two people in the back seat of the Cadillac from where the shots were fired. Anderson died in a gang-related shooting in Compton, California in 1998.
The murder of Shakur occurred shortly after a brawl in a casino involving the rapper, Anderson and several others. Anderson denied all links to Shakur’s murder before he died.
Nominated for six Grammy Awards during his career, Shakur is considered to be one of the most influential rap artists of all time. He has sold more than 75 million albums across the globe, while his songs ‘California Love,’ ‘All Eyez On Me’ and ‘Changes’ are considered to be genre-defining hits.
At the time of his death, Shakur was involved in a high-profile feud with the New York-based Notorious BIG, who was shot dead in a separate incident in March 1997. Both were considered to be at the forefront of an East Coast-vs-West Coast rivalry prevalent in hip hop and rap at the time.
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