For nearly 30 years, Tupac Shakur’s shooting death in Las Vegas remained a high-profile cold case, fueling rap rivalry speculations and media attention about who might have wanted the influential hip-hop singer and actor dead.
Then there was a breakthrough: Las Vegas police reported the arrest of Duane Keith Davis, one of the four suspects believed to have been in the white Cadillac Shakur was being trailed by on September 7, 1996.
After the former Los Angeles gang leader published his self-published memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” in 2019, boasting about his involvement as an eyewitness to the massacre, a grand jury indicted Davis, 60, on a charge of murder — an outcome that has surprised few.
At a news conference on Friday, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said, “Tupac Shakur is a music legend, and this community & the rest of the world have been wanting justice for Tupac.” “And we’re starting that first step today.”
However, it took a while to happen.
Black community members, Shakur’s family, and others have expressed skepticism about the inquiry and wondered why it continued to drag on despite all the publicity.
According to Jeffrey Ogbar, a history professor at the University of Connecticut and the author of “Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture & Politics of Rap,” “It’s a story which has captivated people for a generation now.”
He argued that an arrest was better than none, but expressed concern that those most responsible for the murder would not have been brought to justice.
Shakur’s murder
The New York-born, Baltimore-raised, and California-based rapper, known professionally as 2Pac, had fame in the 1990s with songs including “Keep Ya Head Up,” “Dear Mama,” and “California Love.”
He made his film debut at the age of 20 in “Juice,” and he later co-starred with Janet Jackson in “Poetic Justice.”
Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight, the head of Shakur’s record label Death Row Records, went to see a prizefight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon the night before he was shot.
Knight was operating a BMW, and Shakur was a passenger. They were waiting at a stop sign on the Las Vegas Strip at about 11:15 p.m. on their way to a club owned by Knight when a white Cadillac came up next to them and opened fire, according to investigators.
Shakur was shot four times, twice in the chest, and six days later he passed away from his wounds. He was 25.
The rapper, who detailed his struggles and woven lyrical introspection around issues of deprivation, police brutality, and the self-described “thug life,” had already been subjected to violence. He was wounded five times in 1994 during a heist at a recording studio in Manhattan.
Sadly, Tupac was a victim, Ogbar stated. According to all accounts, he wasn’t a mobster, but after starting to hang out with them on Death Row, he began to adopt many of their values.
Overcoming challenges
Police were aware of an incident that happened the night that Shakur was killed, but they disregarded it.
Shakur got into a fight with a man later identified by California detectives as Orlando Anderson, a member of an opposing gang in Compton, in the foyer of the MGM Grand, in which the Tyson-Seldon boxing battle was taking place.
The Los Angeles Times stated in 2015 as part of a review of police conduct that at the time, the homicide commander of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department claimed his department was unaware of Anderson’s identity or whether it even mattered.
The homicide commander had stated that there is “no reason… for investigators to believe that the altercation has any connection to the shooting.”
Anderson, who insisted he had nothing to do with Shakur’s killing and ultimately passed away in a separate gang firefight two years later, was never actively sought after by the authorities. A member of Shakur’s group who claimed he could identify the attackers was not followed up with by police, and the witness later passed away, according to the Times.
Davis “devised a plan” the night of the altercation in the casino to get a gun and avenge Shakur and Knight for hitting Anderson, according to Las Vegas police, who announced his arrest on Friday. According to police, Davis, who was also Anderson’s uncle, “gave the gun to passengers in the back seat” of the Cadillac before they opened fire on Shakur’s BMW.
Derrick Parker, a former detective from the New York Police Department who utilized his knowledge of hip-hop culture to aid in the investigation of linked killings, claimed that Las Vegas investigators were unfamiliar with the rap scene and gangs and that the probe was hampered by rival law enforcement agencies.
He continued, saying that there was a second issue: people’s overall suspicion of the police and their reluctance to come forward with information. In addition, two more people who were thought to have been in the Cadillac died in the years after the incident in addition to Anderson.
It was a challenging case, according to Parker. Davis “has a great deal of street cred. Numerous people decided not to oppose him.
Rumors concerning rivalry
Following the killing, a different story began to circulate that Assata Shakur had been assassinated as a result of an East Coast-West Coast rap feud involving Christopher Wallace, a Brooklyn rapper better known by his stage names Biggie Smalls & the Notorious B.I.G.
Six months after Shakur’s death, when Biggie was assaulted in a drive-by in Los Angeles following the Soul Train Awards, the rumors intensified. At the hospital, his death was confirmed.
While some police detectives have claimed that Knight directed a hit on the “Mo Money, Mo Problems” rapper, he has categorically denied any participation in the unsolved killing of Biggie.
Another unconfirmed idea about Shakur’s murder claims Knight might have wanted him to pass away. Some, however, have seized on the theory that Shakur may have been kept alive after faking his own demise.
However, Clark County prosecutors assert that they are certain Davis, also known by the gang names “Keefy D” or “Keffe D,” was the one who took independent action to have Shakur killed. In July, Henderson, Nevada police carried out a search warrant at a residence related to Davis.
Lt. Jason Johansson, in charge of homicide investigations for the Las Vegas police, told reporters on Friday that this was probably the last attempt at the case and a successful prosecution of a criminal charge.
Police discovered that Davis had openly discussed his involvement since 2018 and seemed to be accusing himself. He states in his autobiography: “Their jumping on my nephew gave us the final go-ahead to do something. Tupac made a poor gaming decision.
It was not immediately known if Davis had a lawyer and was being held without bail.
Even though the case against Shakur is proceeding, any potential trial will almost certainly prompt new inquiries into why it took so long to apprehend his killer, according to Duke University professor and author Mark Anthony Neal, who is also the author of “Black Ephemera: The Crisis as well as Challenge of the Musical Archive.”
People still need this young man’s case to be resolved after all these years, according to Neal. “Tupac himself was a politically aware, thoughtful, and talented actor. Sadly, we were never able to witness the full potential of who he might have developed into. He is worthy of better.