A suspect has been charged with the never-solved 1996 murder of rap legend Tupac Shakur, which continues to intrigue music fans, a prosecutor announced Friday before a Las Vegas judge.
The man arrested is Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former gang member who has long admitted that he was in the car from which the shots were fired that caused the death of the American rapper. However, in a book published in 2019 he claimed that the shots had been fired from the rear of the vehicle while he was in the front.
An investigation relaunched this summer
According to new elements of the investigation, which experienced a sudden boost this summer, there is a “strong presumption” that Duane Davis is “responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur,” explained prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo. After nearly thirty years of mystery, the case returned to the fore in July, with a search of a Las Vegas home linked to Duane Davis. The police of this Nevada metropolis are scheduled to hold a press conference at 12:30 p.m. (20:00 GMT) to offer more details.
Hip-hop legend, Tupac had become an essential artist on the American west coast after a career as brief as it was dazzling, before being shot dead in September 1996 in Las Vegas, in circumstances that remain unclear. He was 25 years old. The rapper, behind the hits “California,” “Changes,” “Dear Mama” and “All Eyez On Me,” has sold 75 million albums. Tupac had become a key figure in the famous rivalry between the West Coast and East Coast rap scenes of the United States.
Although born in New York, he embodied “west coast” hip-hop after moving to California as a teenager with his family. His murder was followed six months later by that of his East Coast rival, Christopher “The Notorious BIG” Wallace. Many link his deaths to the rivalry between his labels Death Row (based in Los Angeles) and Bad Boy Entertainment (New York), but music historians say this opposition was amplified for commercial reasons.
