For decades, the identity of Tupac Shakur’s killers has been a burning question. A key figure in the US’s East Coast-West Coast rivalry in the 1990s, Shakur was a hip-hop titan capable of penning sensitive ballads about his mother and visceral odes to his rivals when he was fatally shot in 1996.
The mystery faded in recent years as Duane Keith Davis, who goes by Keffe D, repeatedly stated that he was involved in the killing and wrote about it in Compton Street Legend, his 2019 memoir about gang life. His comments led the authorities to reopen the case.
Davis was arrested in September 2023 and has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He is not accused of killing Shakur, but is accused of providing the gun that was used in the drive-by shooting.
The trial began on Monday with jury selection that may take up to a week. The prosecution and the defence will then outline their arguments in opening statements.
READ MORE
How did Tupac die?
Shortly after leaving a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas, Shakur was in a black BMW driven by Suge Knight, a founder of Death Row Records. At about 11.15pm, Knight stopped the car for a red light at an intersection just outside the Strip.
A white Cadillac pulled up next to the BMW, and someone began shooting into Shakur’s vehicle. Four bullets struck the rapper, who died in a hospital six days later. He was 25.
What led to the shooting?
Before the Tyson fight, Davis had given a football player $4,000 to buy clothes at a mall in Southern California before he headed to college, Denvonta Lee, an affiliate of the South Side Crips, told a grand jury.
The football player was accompanied by Crips-associated gang members, who encountered members of their rival gang, Mob Piru Bloods, which was affiliated with Knight. The crews fought over a Death Row chain. Witnesses said one of the participants was Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson.
Anderson and Davis later attended the brief heavyweight bout between Tyson and Bruce Seldon. Afterward, Anderson found himself alone near the elevators in the MGM hotel.
Shakur and other Bloods gang members recognised Anderson, approached and began punching and kicking him.
The Crips sought immediate revenge. Later that night, according to prosecutors, Anderson or another man, Deandrae Smith, allegedly fired the weapon and killed Shakur.
“He wasn’t coming back to Compton with nothing being done,” Lee told the grand jury.
Who is the suspect?
Davis, aged 63, is the only person to be charged in connection with Shakur’s killing. The Cadillac’s three other passengers – Anderson, Smith and Terrence Brown – are dead. Anderson was fatally shot at a Compton car wash in 1998.
In his memoir, Davis claims to be a descendant of Nat Turner, the enslaved preacher who led a rebellion in 1831. He grew up in Compton, joining the South Side Compton Crips and becoming a key figure among the gang’s hierarchy.
Davis said in 2014 that he was diagnosed with colon cancer and has since said that he is in remission. Authorities arrested Davis on September 29th, 2023, outside a home in Henderson, Nevada. He told police that he had moved there because of his wife’s job opening grocery stores in the state.
What is the evidence?
Hotel security footage captures Shakur and others confronting Anderson, establishing a motive for Shakur’s killing. Authorities also recovered items including computers and hard drives from Davis’ home.
However, it is mostly Davis’ detailed descriptions of how he orchestrated Shakur’s killing as retaliation for the brawl that will be used as evidence.
In his book, Davis wrote that Shakur’s entourage “crossed the line” by beating up Anderson and that he acted as a “shot caller” who provided a Glock 40. Davis made similar accounts during recorded interviews with law enforcement and on appearances in documentaries and podcasts.
Judge Carli Kierny has ruled that the book and Davis’ related statements are admissible evidence. Davis has since said that he had not written or even read his memoir and that he had made the claims to gain fame and fortune.
“They can’t even place me out here,” Davis told ABC News in an interview from jail. “They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keffe D, no nothing.”
Who is on the witness list?
It is not clear who will ultimately be called to testify, but prosecutors have filed a long list of potential witnesses that includes Shakur’s relatives and several notable names.
Those include Knight, who was wounded in the shooting and is serving a 28-year sentence for a fatal hit-and-run, and Nevada governor Joe Lombardo, former sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. – This article originally appeared in The New York Times
