By: Macy Dennon

Editor-in-Chief

The Las Vegas Police Department (LVPD) arrested Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis on Sept. 29 for the murder of Tupac Shakur. Shakur’s cold case was one of the most famous unsolved cases to date, not only because of the high-profile victim, but also because detectives left it unsolved for over 27 years. Independent investigations uncovered stacks of evidence against many suspects over the years, but none had come to fruition until now. 

The LVPD spoke out on why it took them so long to make an arrest for this case. Sergeant Kevin Manning stated, “Tupac got the same treatment as any other homicide here… we rely on citizens to step forward and help solve crimes. And in Tupac’s case, we got no cooperation whatsoever.” The responding officers on the night of the shooting claim that Shakur failed to cooperate in his final moments of consciousness before being taken to the hospital by first responders. Allegedly, when they asked him who shot him, he responded with vulgar language. A month after the shooting in 1996, Shakur’s mother spoke about the incident, saying, “When my son was lying in the hospital in a medically induced coma, the Las Vegas police went on national television telling everybody that he was not cooperating with their investigation. It was clear to me from Day 1 that the Las Vegas police never had any interest in solving the case of my son’s murder.”

Though authorities believe that the actual shooter of Shakur remains free, the LVPD has reason to believe that Davis planned the killing and also handed the gun to the unidentified shooter. Davis, though not the killer, admitted to his involvement many times on television in 2018 and 2019, in his 2019 memoir, and in interviews over the years. He even stated in his initial statement on record that his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was the person who pulled the trigger that took Shakur’s life. He has since refused to restate Anderson’s direct involvement. Even after the interviews, LVPD took four years to obtain a search warrant for his home. During a search on July 17, 2023, police found an assortment of incriminating items, including 0.40 caliber cartridges, a hard drive, and a copy of documentary materials. Anderson, though named directly in an official report by Davis, only went into an interview by police once, leading people to speculate the police’s true intentions with the case. 

Davis faces 50 years, life in prison, or the death penalty if the jury finds him guilty of murder; in Nevada, an assist to a murder is still considered murder. His direct admission of guilt leaves Davis with little hope for freedom, and he will likely be in prison for the remainder of his life. 

(Sources: AP News, CBS, Los Angeles Times, The Fader)