Inside Tupac Shakur’s 1996 Murder Investigation: Suspect Arrested and Charged With Murder

The investigation into rapper Tupac Shakur‘s murder continues as police carry on their search for answers nearly 30 years later.

The Associated Press reported on Sept. 29 that Duane “Keefe D” Davis had been arrested that morning in connection with the 1996 murder.

Later in the day, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo announced that Keefe had been indicted by a grand jury on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.

Davis has long been a known figure in the investigation of Shakur’s murder and has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was in the car that fired the shots in the September 1996 drive-by shooting. 

The Las Vegas Metro Police confirmed to ET that a search warrant was served at a home in Henderson, Nevada, on July 17 as part of the ongoing investigation. At the time, the LVMPD declined to comment further.

Shakur was shot multiple times in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996 while leaving a boxing match at the MGM Grand Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

The “Dear Mama” rapper was in a car with Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them and began shooting out of the back window, hitting Shakur. He died in the hospital from internal injuries on Sept. 13.

While authorities believed at the time that the 25-year-old rapper was the intended target of the shooting, the investigation remains unsolved, with police continuing to search for answers as to who killed the GRAMMY-nominated musician.

Shakur was one of the most popular rappers in the world when he was killed, selling over 75 million records worldwide — and became a legend after his death, with dozens of posthumous albums, books, documentaries and films released about him and his untimely death. He was even turned into a hologram for Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s 2012 Coachella performance. Shakur was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, and just last month, he posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The update is the latest in the case following a 2019 lead from Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective, who alleged to CBS News Los Angeles that Shakur’s murder had already been solved after Davis confessed to his involvement in the murder of Shakur while being questioned in connection with the murder of The Notorious B.I.G., also known as Christopher Wallace.

At the time, Las Vegas police only said that the case was still an open investigation.

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