Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was killed in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, the long-awaited murder trial of the man accused of orchestrating his death has begun.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom on Monday as jury selection got underway in the high-profile case. Prosecutors allege that the former South Side Compton Crips leader helped organise the September 1996 attack and supplied the weapon used in the shooting. Davis has pleaded not guilty and denies responsibility.
Tupac, whose real name was Tupac Amaru Shakur, was 25 when he was shot after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Prosecutors say tensions escalated after Tupac and Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight were involved in an altercation with Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew and a member of the South Side Compton Crips.
Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Davis and several others pulled alongside the vehicle carrying Tupac and Knight. Gunfire erupted, critically injuring the rapper. Tupac died six days later, on September 13, 1996.
For years, the killing remained one of hip-hop’s most notorious unsolved cases. The investigation gained renewed momentum after Davis made public statements about his involvement, including claims in a 2019 memoir that he was in the Cadillac and handed a gun to people in the back seat. He has maintained that he was not the shooter and has since sought to distance himself from parts of the memoir.
Davis was arrested and charged in 2023. Prosecutors now face the challenge of proving his alleged role nearly 30 years after the shooting, while the defence is expected to challenge the reliability of Davis’ past statements and the evidence against him.
The trial is expected to last around five weeks and could revisit one of the most enduring mysteries in music history: who was ultimately responsible for the death of one of hip-hop’s most influential artists?
