Tupac murder suspect arrested and named as Duane Davis – live updates

Tupac Shakur’s family is relieved that a suspect is in custody for the rapper’s 1996 murder, according to law enforcement officials.

“The family has reached out to my office,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wilson said during a press conference on Friday. “We’ve been in communication with them. We understand they are welcoming this news. They are pleased with this news.”

The DA said the family would be “involved” with the case against suspect Duane Davis going forward.

Duane Davis has been charged with the murder of Tupac Shakur.

Even though he isn’t thought to have shot the rapper himself in 1996, police described Mr Davis as the “shot-caller” who planned the retaliatory gang shooting that claimed the rapper’s life.

Mr Davis is charged with one count of open murder with use of a deadly weapon, a charge strengthened with a gang enhancement.

He has not yet entered a plea.

Las Vegas police say they knew most of the basic facts about Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder in a matter of weeks, but they never got the kind of conclusive evidence that could put someone away.

That changed in 2018, when a Southern California gang leader named Duane Davis began speaking about his alleged role in the killing as a leader in the Southside Compton Crips.

“This case was reinvigorated as additional information came to light related to his homicide, especially Duane Davis’s own admissions to his involvement in this homicide he provided to numerous different media outlets,” Lieutenant Johansson said.

Indeed, in the 2018 Netflix documentary Unsolved: The Tupac and Biggie Murders and in his book Compton Street Legend which he published in 2019, Keffe D claimed that his nephew Orlando Anderson fatally shot Tupac – and that he was in the car with him when he opened fire.

“Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat,” Mr Davis writes in the book.

“It was the first and only time in my life that I could relate to the police command, ‘Keep your hands where I can see them.’ Instead, Pac pulled out a strap, and that’s when the fireworks started.

“One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back.”

Mr Davis was arrested and indicted on murder charges on Friday, 29 September, with police accusing him of being the ‘shot-caller’ who orchestrated Tupac’s death.

Duane Davis, who was indicted on Friday for the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996, didn’t pull the trigger, but Las Vegas police say he’s nonetheless responsible for the hip-hop icon’s death.

“Duane Davis was the shot-caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime,” homicide lieutenant Jason Johansson said during a press conference on Friday. “He orchestrated the plan that was carried out.”

Police described Mr Davis, who has not yet entered a plea, as a leader in the Southside Compton Crips gang, who were in a conflict with a gang associated with Shakur.

He is a former Southside Compton Crips gang member and one of the last people ever to see rapper Tupac Shakur alive.

Now Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been arrested and charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon in the 1996 killing of the renowned rapper on the Las Vegas strip.

Mr Davis was arrested by police near his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas on Friday 29 September, hours after a grand jury returned an indictment against him.

Prosecutors then appeared in court where they described him as the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Shakur.

Graeme Massie has the details on what led police to bring the suspect in.

A suspect may have been charged, but the investigation into Tupac Shakur’s murder is “far from over,” according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police.

“While I know there have been many people who did not believe the murder of Tupac Shakur was important to this department, I am here to tell you that is simply not the case,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference on Friday. “It was not the case back then, and it is not the case today.”

Watch the full press conference here.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man indicted on Friday for the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, wrote at length about his alleged role in the killing in a 2019 tell-all memoir.

Mr Davis alleged that Tupac appeared to be grabbing a gun, so his car full of associates opened fire.

“Tupac made an errative move and began to reach down beneath his seat,” Mr Davis writes.

“One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back,” he continued.

The Nevada man explained the shooting as a response to a previous altercation between Tupac and a member of the South Side Crip gang.

Duane Davis, who was arrested and indicted on Friday for the murder of Tupac Shakur in 1996, has previously admitted to being there the moment the famed rapper was killed.

“When we pulled up, I was in the front seat,” he said of the drive-by shooting in an interview for the American crime documentary Unsolved: the Tupac and Biggie Murders, though he declined to name the shooter at the time.

“Going to keep it for the code of the streets,” he said. “It just came from the backseat.”

Previously, Mr Davis has claimed fellow gang member Orlando Anderon, who has since died in an unrelated gang shooting, was the one who pulled the trigger.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, was indicted on charges of murder and the use of a deadly weapon in the fatal drive-by shooting which has gone unsolved for almost three decades, according to authorities.

A Nevada grand jury indicted Mr Davis in the killing, prosecutors announced in court hours after he was arrested. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo told the court that a grand jury had been seated in the case for “several months.”

Mr DiGiacomo went on to describe Mr Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Shakur.

Prosecutors on Friday named Duane “Keffe D” Davis of Nevada in a murder indictment for the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Mr Davis, who has previously admitted to being in the car from which Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting, was arrested on Friday morning near his home.