Las Vegas [US]: An arrest was made by the Las Vegas police in connection with the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, 27 years after the rapper’s death, New York Post reported.
The suspect has been identified as Duane “Keffe D” Davis. He was arrested early Friday morning.
New York Post reported citing sources that the accused will be facing a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
Shakur was shot and killed while leaving a boxing match on the Las Vegas Strip. His untimely death – the rapper was just 25 – has been the subject of conspiracy theories and a decades-long investigation, CNN reported.
The home of Davis’ wife Henderson was searched in July as part of the ongoing investigation into the shooting, during which a copy of the memoir was seized, where Davis authored detailing street gang life and the murder of Shakur, according to CNN.
Notably, Davis had been very public about being a witness to the shooting of Tupac, then 25, and hip hop mogul Marion “Suge” Knight on the Las Vegas strip in September 1996.
Davis said he was one of four occupants of a white Cadillac that pulled alongside the rapper’s car, rolled down its windows, and shot, hitting Tupac four times.
In his memoir “Compton Street Legends,” Davis identified his nephew, Orlando Anderson, as the one who fatally shot Tupac. Anderson, who was a member of the South Side Compton Crips gang, died as the result of another gangland shooting in 1998 aged 23, New York Post reported.
But, Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s murder and was never charged. However, Nevada does not have a statute of limitations on prosecuting murder cases and the case of the “California Love” rapper’s shooting has always been open.
In July this year, Las Vegas police served a search warrant at the Henderson, Nevada, home of Davis’ wife, Pamela Clemons, as part of Shakur’s homicide investigation.
Cops confiscated several computers, laptops, and iPads from the home, as well as the .40 caliber cartridge — of which many of the same types of casings were recovered from the scene where Shakur was shot, New York Post reported citing a search warrant.
Greg Kading, a retired LAPD detective who had investigated Tupac’s death told New York Post on Friday, “Davis provided the gun and he actively sought out Tupac with his nephew”.
Kading had interviewed Davis twice while he was a cop in LA, in 2008 and 2009 while investigating the murders of Shakur and his rap rival Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a Christopher Wallace, who was gunned down in Hollywood.
Following the shooting, Tupac was rushed to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada — along with Knight, who was also hit — and listed in critical condition. He died six days later, on Sept. 13, of cardiac arrest. Although the shooting took place in a very visible public area, no witnesses came forward at the time.
As per New York Post, it has heavily been speculated that Tupac’s murder was gang-related. The rapper was associated with the Bloods street gang and earlier on the night of his death he had got into a fight with Anderson following a boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.
Shakur’s stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, told CNN in an interview that the news of Davis’ arrest is “bittersweet”, adding that he and his family have been frustrated since Davis’ name has been floated around in connection to the murder for decades.
Throughout his short-lived career, Shakur — born Lesane Parish Crooks — sold more than 75 million records worldwide, New York Post reported.
