On September 7th, 1996, Tupac was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas Valley. Shot four times, the American rapper died of his wounds six days later. Nearly 30 years later, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was convicted of one count of murder using a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement. He became the only living suspect involved in the crime scene. He was arrested on September 29th, 2023, being named the ringleader who authorized the shooting and supplied the deadly weapon used.
Davis is most known for being in the California-based gang known as the South Side Compton Crips, one of the street gangs coinciding with the alliance known as the Crips. In July 2018, he confessed to being involved in the murder, as he was in the white Cadillac that drove by and shot the BMW Tupac was in. His nephew, Orlando Anderson, was also in the BMW but had denied involvement and was never charged. Orlando was also a part of the Crips and suffered detainment in October of 1996 after a wrongful death from Afeni Shakur, Tupac’s mother. He died two years later due to an unrelated gang shooting in Compton.
On November 2nd, 2023, Keffe D went to court and as expected, pleaded not guilty. During this case, prosecutors showed autopsy reports of Tupac’s body, not only as evidence but also to disprove conspiracy theorists believing that he faked his death and is now living in Malaysia or Cuba. Davis appeared in court again on the 7th to determine the time and date of the trial, now scheduled for June 3rd, 2024. Even throughout all of that, Tupac remains a former powerful voice for social change, and his death a shock to the music world. Prayers go out to all those involved and those who mourn to find closure and justice in the coming trial.