Tupac Murder Suspect Arrested After 27 Years

On September 7, 1996, at 11:15 p.m., Tupac Shakur sat in a stopped car at a red light on East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Paradise, Nevada, when a gunman opened fire in a drive-by shooting. The 25-year-old rap icon was fatally wounded, becoming one of hip-hop's most infamous unsolved murders—until authorities made an arrest more than a quarter-century later.

Duane "Keefe D" Keith Davis, 60, was arrested on July 18, 2023, following a raid on his Henderson, Nevada home by the Las Vegas Police Department. Officers seized computers, a cell phone, and bullets during the operation. On September 29, 2023, Davis was indicted by grand jury for first-degree murder. He pleaded not guilty on November 2, 2023, and was initially held without bail before later being granted bail and house arrest pending trial.

**The Suspected Motive**

According to investigators, Davis served as the "shot caller" who allegedly provided the weapon and orchestrated the hit in retaliation for a beating. Weeks before the shooting, Tupac Shakur and members of his entourage had allegedly beaten Davis's nephew, Orlando Anderson, a Crips gang member. The assault is believed to have triggered the fatal response.

While Orlando Anderson was long suspected in connection with the shooting, he denied involvement and was killed in an unrelated gang shootout in 1998. A witness—identified as a South Side Compton Crips affiliate who testified before the grand jury—named DeAndrae Smith as the actual shooter, though Smith has not been publicly charged.

**The Breakthrough**