A grand jury on Friday indicted Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis in the 1996 murder case of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur, marking a breakthrough for a long-unsolved case that was a defining moment in the history of rap music.
Authorities described Davis as the "shot caller" of a hurried plot to avenge the beating of his nephew, Orlando Anderson, inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena by members of Shakur's entourage on the night of September 7, 1996, according to Reuters reports.
Speaking at a media briefing, Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Jason Johansson said, “He orchestrated the plan that was carried out to commit this crime.”
Police showed hotel security footage of several men kicking and punching a person they identified as Anderson near a bank of elevators before security personnel broke up the altercation.
Of these, one person seen attacking Anderson was identified as Marion “Suge” Knight, co-founder and then-CEO of Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, which produced Shakur's records, Reuters reported.
Johansson said that the incident then led to the retaliatory shooting death of Tupac Shakur. After obtaining a gun from an unnamed associate, Davis, along with Anderson and two other men, Terrence Brown and Deandre Smith, boarded a white Cadillac and rode off to locate the black BMW that Knight had driven away from the hotel with Shakur as his passenger.
Shots were fired from the Cadillac into the passenger side of the BMW when Davis and the others caught up to Shakur and Knight's vehicle. Shakur, struck four times, died in a hospital six days later at the age of 25.
Knight, who was grazed in the head by a bullet fragment but suffered only minor injuries, was sent to prison the following month for violating terms of his probation in a previous assault case when he was caught taking part in the MGM melee, as per Reuters reports.
Shakur’s death came amid his feud with rap rival the Notorious B.I.G., who was fatally shot six months later. At the time, both rappers were in the middle of the infamous East Coast-West Coast rivalry, which primarily defined the hip-hop scene during the mid-1990s. The feud was ignited after Shakur was seriously wounded in another shooting during a robbery in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan hotel.
Shakur openly accused B.I.G. and Sean “Diddy" Combs of having prior knowledge of the shooting, which both vehemently denied. The shooting sparked enough of a feud that created a serious divide between the hip-hop community and fans, AP had earlier reported.
The New York-born Shakur represented the West Coast after he signed with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records. He often traded verbal jabs in the media and through songs. B.I.G. and Combs hailed from the East Coast while representing New York City-based Bad Boy Records.
Largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, the six-time Grammy Award-nominated Shakur has had five No. 1 albums: 1995’s “Me Against the World," 1996’s “All Eyez on Me," and three posthumous releases: 1996’s “The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory," which was recorded under the name Makaveli, as well as 2001’s “Until the End of Time" and 2004’s “Loyal to the Game."
His professional music career only lasted five years, but Shakur secured 21 Billboard Hot 100s, including top 10 hits “Dear Mama" and "Old School" in 1995, and his best-known track, 1996’s “How Do U Want It/California Love" featuring K-Ci and JoJo. The latter spent two weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 from his final studio album and Death Row Records debut, “All Eyez on Me."
Shakur has sold 33 million albums, 41 million when including track sale and streaming equivalents. The rapper’s on-demand video and audio streams total 10.1 billion.
In 2017, Shakur was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Snoop Dogg. In June of this year, the rapper received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He’s also had some museum exhibits that paid homage to his life, including “Tupac Shakur. Wake Me When I’m Free," which opened in 2021.
(With inputs from agencies)
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