Who Was Behind Tupac’s Murder? After Three Decades, the Investigation Relies on a Former Gangster’s Accounts

Three decades after the murder of Tupac Shakur, the case still has no definitive answer. The rapper was shot several times in September 1996 near the Las Vegas Strip while riding in a car driven by Marion “Suge” Knight, the head of Death Row Records. The 25-year-old died from his injuries several days later.

The killing became one of the best-known mysteries in American pop culture. For years, the absence of a defendant and a conclusive account of who organized and carried out the attack fueled conspiracy theories, speculation and numerous competing narratives. Now, the justice system is confronting a suspect: Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, a former gang leader and the only person ever charged with the artist’s murder.

According to The Guardian, investigators were unable for many years to build a criminal case against a single individual. Moreover, several people who may have had direct information about the attack are no longer alive.

Among them was Orlando Anderson, Davis’s nephew, whom authorities had long linked to the altercation that preceded the murder. Anderson was killed in 1998, two years after Tupac’s death, in a shootout unrelated to the rapper’s murder. Another person named in the case documents died in 2004.

Prosecutors are now basing part of their case on Davis’s accounts in a book published in 2019. In it, he describes the conflict that began in Las Vegas after Orlando Anderson fought with Tupac and his entourage during a trip to attend a Mike Tyson boxing match.

According to his version of events, a plan was devised after the fight to find Tupac and others associated with Death Row Records. Davis wrote that he placed a Glock handgun in the vehicle carrying the group. Later, he said, the situation spiraled out of control, and an unidentified person in the back seat took the gun and opened fire.

This circumstance is expected to be among the central issues at trial. Prosecutors allege that Davis organized the attack and provided the gun, meaning he can be held responsible for the murder even if he was not the person who fired the shots.

For that reason, the trial may not necessarily provide the answer that has been sought for the past 30 years: “Who shot Tupac?”

Davis’s attorneys have opposed admitting the book as evidence. They argue that Davis and his co-author may have exaggerated or embellished events for personal and financial gain. The defense has compared the case to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an event that has been endlessly analyzed, mythologized and financially exploited. Prosecutors are also expected to present interviews Davis gave to authorities in 2008 and 2009.

After the proceedings began, Tupac’s family members said that anyone who played a role in the murder should be punished. If Davis is found guilty, it would mark a historic development, as an individual would be held criminally responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur for the first time.