Las Vegas police have charged a man over the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, 27 years after the rapper’s death.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis was taken in by Las Vegas police Friday and now faces a charge of murder with a deadly weapon.
Davis, 60, said he was one of four occupants of a white Cadillac that pulled alongside the rapper’s car before someone inside rolled down its windows and fired, 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 at age 23 as the result of another gangland shooting in 1998.
However, A Nevada grand jury indicted Davis over the murder with Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo describing Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” and “shot caller” who “ordered the death” of Shakur, rather than being a bystander.
Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s murder and was never charged. The other two men in the car, Terrence Brown and DeAndre Smith are also now dead.
Nevada does not have a statute of limitations on prosecuting murder cases and at a press conference Friday, Clark County DA Steve Wolfson explained how a person aiding and abetting a murder can still be charged for it.
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 a .40-caliber cartridge — the same type as the many casings that were recovered from the scene where Shakur was shot, according to a search warrant obtained by The Post.
Davis said in his book that the first time he talked about Tupac’s shooting was in 2010 during a meeting with federal and local authorities. He said he agreed to speak to them about the shooting in exchange for them dropping drug charges in a federal case for which he was facing life in prison.
Greg Kading, a retired LAPD detective who had investigated Tupac’s death, told The Post Friday: “Davis provided the gun and he actively sought out Tupac with his nephew.
“Davis gave the gun to his nephew, who was in the car with them, and collectively, they went out and intended to shoot Tupac. He provided the gun, and his nephew did the shooting, so they are all equally guilty under solicitation for murder.”
Kading added, “I am super excited because this is huge! We knew this wasn’t an unsolved case, and now it looks like they have taken it to a point where they can officially close it. For the rest of history, Tupac’s murder will not be considered an unsolved crime.”
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.
It has been heavily speculated 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 gotten 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 he and his family have been frustrated since Davis’ name has been floated in connection to the murder for decades.
“This theory hasn’t been looked into for 27 years,” Mopreme Shakur said. “Why? My family’s been traumatized, my sister, my daughter, my nieces, my nephews, we’ve all been traumatized, waiting. We’ve been waiting for something to happen, for someone to be proactive enough to take action.”
Throughout his brief career, Shakur — born Lesane Parish Crooks — sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
With Post wires
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