Police waited over two decades to arrest Tupac murder suspect so he would air more confessions: expert
An expert has weighed in on why it took more than two decades to arrest Tupac murder suspect Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis.
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Police likely waited years before arresting the man who had openly discussed his involvement in Tupac Shakur’s killing so he would provide a “compilation” of confessions, a retired detective who once investigated the shocking murder has said.
On Friday, Las Vegas Police arrested and charged with murder Duane “Keefe D” Davis, who five years ago revealed in a documentary interview he was riding in a white Cadillac where a back-seat shooter opened fire at Tupac’s BMW in Las Vegas in 1996.
Davis and others in the Cadillac were reportedly members of the notorious Los Angeles street gang the South Side Compton Crips, while Tupac was affiliated with the Bloods, a rival LA gang.
According to the New York Post, Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective, said that with Davis sharing his ties to the shooting in interviews, followed by a tell-all memoir, Las Vegas PD likely delayed arresting him so he would continue providing additional evidence for an airtight case.
“Perhaps what they were doing was saying, ‘He’s already tied the noose, now, let’s let him hang himself,’” speculated Kading, who previously investigated Shakur’s killing.
“‘You didn’t just say it twice, you didn’t just say it five times,’ and so now you’ve got this compilation of so many confessions,” Kading said, adding, “The perception is that it’s going to be hard for him at this point to say, ‘Hey, I was just kind of boasting, making stuff up.’”
In 2018, after he was diagnosed with cancer, Davis brazenly provided details to TV station BET about the drive-by shooting, including that he was in the front seat of the Cadillac.
A year later, in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, Davis painted himself as one of the last living witnesses to Tupac’s murder while recounting details of the slaying.
“One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back,” Davis wrote.
“As the rounds continued flying, I ducked down so that I wouldn’t get hit.”
Davis also claimed in his book that his nephew Orlando Anderson, who also was a member of the South Side Compton Crips, fatally shot Tupac.
Anderson, who died in 1998, denied any involvement in Shakur’s murder and was never charged.
Clark County Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo described Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” and “shot caller” who “ordered the death” of Shakur.
Nevada does not have a statute of limitations for prosecuting murder cases.
TUPAC’S FAMILY BREAKS SILENCE
The sister of Tupac Shakur says the charging of a former gang leader with the legendary rapper’s murder is a “pivotal moment”.
Her comments came as Jada Pinkett Smith, who was a close friend of Tupac, said she was hopeful to “get some answers” regarding his death.
“Now I hope we can get some answers and have some closure,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories in response to the shock development in the rapper’s murder case.
For nearly 30 years the killing of Tupac Shakur has remained one of the music industry’s most enduring unsolved crimes.
The New York-born hip-hop legend was shot four times aged 25 in a drive-by attack in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996.
His sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, described the development as “a victory” but “reserved Judgement” until legal proceedings were complete.
“It’s important to me that the world, the country, the justice system, and our people acknowledge the gravity of the passing of this man, my brother, my mother’s son, my father’s son,” she posted on Instagram.
“There have been multiple hands involved and there remains so much surrounding the life and death of my brother Tupac and our Shakur family overall. We are seeking real justice, on all fronts,” she continued.
In an interview with CCN, Tupac’s stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, called Keefe’s arrest “bittersweet”.
“We have been through decades of pain,” he said. “They have known about this guy, who been running his mouth, for years.”
“So why now? For us, this is not over. We want to know why, and if there were any accomplices,” Mopreme said.
In court, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo accused Mr Davis of being the ring leader behind a plan to “exact revenge” on Shakur and Death Row Records chairman Marion “Suge” Knight for a fight involving Mr Davis’ nephew at the MGM casino earlier in the night.
Mr DiGiacomo called Mr Davis the “on-ground on-sight commander of the effort to kill Mr. Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight.”
Mr Davis was arrested last Friday morning, local time, two months after a raid at his Las Vegas home in what was a stunning breakthrough in the 27-year cold case.
At a news conference, police officer Jason Johansson said it became obvious very quickly that the murder was a gang-related crime.
But it was not until 2018, when new information came to light, that the case was “reinvigorated”.
Mr DiGiancomo said the “broad outline of facts” was known to police as far back as 1996 but that they lacked admissible evidence to establish the chain of events.
As Tupac Shakur and his entourage left the MGM, Mr DiGiacomo said they put a “giant beat down” on Southside Crip Orlando Anderson, the nephew of Mr Davis.
“Shortly after Mr Anderson received his beating at the MGM, Mr Davis found out about it and during that, he formulated a plan to exact revenge upon Mr Knight and Mr Shakur”.
“In furtherance of that he acquired a .40-calibre Glock firearm from a drug associate,” Mr DiGiacomo added.
“He gets into the Cadillac, and he provides the .40-calibre Glock firearm to one of the two individuals in the back seat.
“The rear passenger fired a number of rounds out of that vehicle, striking Mr Knight in the head and Mr Shakur several times.”
While Mr DiGiancomo said there wasn’t evidence to prosecute Tupac’s murder for almost 30 years, that changed in 2018 when Mr Davis began making public statements about his involvement in the shooting on the show Gangster Chronicles, and in his memoir the following year.
Mr Davis has previously “confessed” in documentary interviews to being in the car when gunmen opened fire on Tupac and Knight.
Tupac died days later, while Knight, who was jailed for 28 years in 2018 for running down and killing a Compton businessman, survived.
Mr Anderson, who had denied being involved in the drive-by, died in a gang-related shooting two years later in 1998.
The indictment comes after a July raid on Mr Davis’ house in Henderson, about 25km southeast of the Vegas strip, where police seized hard drives, a mobile phone, a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, and several .40-calibre bullets, according to officials familiar with the case.
The official told ABC News that police also seized photos dating back to the 1990s showing people who were believed to be connected to gangs or gang activity at the time of the slaying.
Police also seized copies of Compton Street Legend, the 2019 tell-all memoir by Mr Davis in which he admitted to being in the Cadillac when shots were fired.
Mr Davis wrote in the book that he spoke about Tupac’s killing during a closed-door meeting with federal and local authorities in 2010. He was facing life in prison on drug charges when he agreed to speak with the authorities.
“They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out,” he wrote, describing himself as one of the last living witnesses to the shooting.
After a cancer diagnosis in 2018, the self-proclaimed “Compton Kingpin” sensationally confessed “involvement” in the rapper’s murder during an interview in the crime documentary Unsolved: the Tupac and Biggie Murders.
Davis claimed he was in the front passenger seat, next to driver Terrence Brown, with DeAndre Smith and Orlando Anderson in the back, when they saw Tupac driving towards Suge Knight’s 662 Club.
“My partner bust a U,” Davis tells the camera. “When we pulled up, I was in the front seat.”
He said the shots were fired from behind him, but stopped short of identifying who pulled the trigger.
“Going to keep it for the code of the streets. It just came from the back seat,” he said.
Retired Los Angeles detective Greg Kading, who spent years investigating Tupac’s murder, said he would not be surprised by the arrest after interviewing Davis in 2008 and 2009.
“It’s so long overdue,” Kading told The Associated Press during a recent interview.
“People have been yearning for him to be arrested for a long time. It’s never been unsolved in our minds. It’s been unprosecuted.”
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