Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in Las Vegas, the long-running mystery surrounding the rapper’s death is finally heading to trial.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, is set to face trial over the 1996 killing of the hip-hop icon. Prosecutors allege that Davis ordered the attack and supplied the firearm used in the drive-by shooting.
Davis, now 63, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment without parole.
Tupac, widely known as 2Pac, was only 25 when he was shot on September 7, 1996, after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He died several days later from his injuries.
The killing became one of the most famous unsolved cases in American music history, with fans and investigators spending decades debating who was responsible and what triggered the attack.
What Happened That Night?
Tupac was closely associated with Death Row Records, whose rivalry with New York-based Bad Boy Records was at the centre of the intense East Coast-West Coast hip-hop feud of the 1990s.
Prosecutors say tensions escalated after Tupac and Death Row boss Marion “Suge” Knight confronted and assaulted Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand.
Later that night, prosecutors allege that a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and others pulled alongside the vehicle carrying Tupac and Knight.
Shots were fired from the Cadillac, leaving Tupac critically wounded.
Davis’ Memoir Helped Revive the Case
For years, investigators struggled to make significant progress in the case. That changed after Davis published a memoir in 2019 in which he discussed his involvement in the events surrounding Tupac’s killing.
Davis reportedly acknowledged being in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and said he handed a gun to people in the back seat. However, he did not identify the person who fired the fatal shots.
The other people who were inside the vehicle that night have since died.
Davis was eventually arrested in September 2023, decades after the shooting.
He has since denied killing Tupac and has challenged the prosecution’s case.
“I’m innocent. I ain’t killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody,” Davis said in a 2025 interview.
He has also claimed that he was in Los Angeles on the night of the shooting and argued that statements attributed to him in his memoir were exaggerated by his co-author.
Trial Expected to Last a Month
The trial is expected to last about a month, beginning with jury selection, which could take roughly a week.
Davis’ lawyers previously attempted to prevent prosecutors from using his memoir and an earlier police interview as evidence, but those efforts were unsuccessful.
Even if the court reaches a verdict, questions surrounding Tupac’s death may not completely disappear.
In May, Tupac’s stepbrother Maurice Shakur filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, arguing that others connected to the rapper’s killing have never been held accountable.
The case has therefore reignited worldwide interest in one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries — who really killed Tupac Shakur, and why?
Source: AFP.
