Three decades after rapper Tupac Shakur was shot in Las Vegas, Duane “Keffe D” Davis is standing trial for his murder. Davis, 63, was indicted in 2023 on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He has pleaded not guilty, but a witness testified this week that he was the “shot caller.”
Shooting of Tupac Shakur
On September 7, 1996, Tupac and Marion “Suge” Knight, owner of the record label Death Row, were driving in a BMW within a group of other cars when a Cadillac pulled up beside them and opened fire. Knight left the scene injured, but the rising rapper died a week later in the hospital.
Death Row was associated with the Mob Piru Bloods gang, and Davis was a known member of its rival, the South Side Compton Crips gang.
One of Tupac’s childhood friends, Malcolm Greenidge, described the drive-by shooting he witnessed as prosecutors presented evidence that Davis was behind the gang hit. Greenidge was among the vehicles within the convoy that night, driving directly behind his friend’s BMW. He watched their car stop at a red light to talk to some women before shots were fired.
“When those ladies pulled off, another car pulled up and started shooting at Mr. Shakur and Mr. Knight,” Greenidge said, noting the sedan was a light-colored four-door Cadillac. “I’m horrified,” he said as a recount of his reaction from watching the shooting happen.
Gang Detective Offers Insight
Robert Ladd, a retired detective and author of “Once Upon a Time in Compton,” testified Tuesday that the shooting of Tupac led to a gang war in Compton, California. In the following 10 days, three murders and 10 attempted murders occurred in the city.
“To me, there was no doubt in my mind that the South Side Crips were responsible, because the Mob Piru had to retaliate and they had 54 other gangs to choose from, but they went right after the South Side Crips,” Ladd said. “There’s no doubt in my mind who’s responsible for shooting Tupac and Suge Knight.”
Davis has admitted for a while now that he was in the white Cadillac that pulled up beside Tupac’s BMW, along with his nephew and a fellow gang member, Orlando Anderson. The South Side Crips leader published a memoir in 2019 titled “Compton Street Legend,” which stated he was in the front seat when someone in the back seat fired the shots.
Ladd referenced this note in his testimony, saying it did not matter what seat Davis was in because if he had not approved the shooting, it would have never happened and Tupac would have driven off from that red light. Ladd, a former gang detective in Compton, explained the structure of the South Side Compton Crips.
He said Davis was known as the “shot caller,” and considered a high-level gang member and narcotics dealer. “If he tells them not to do it, say, ‘Let’s handle this back in Compton,’ they wouldn’t have had a shooting. If he sanctioned it, there would be a shooting,” Ladd explained.
“Could Mr. Anderson shoot that gun with Mr. Davis in the car without Mr. Davis’ permission?” Prosecutor Binu Paul asked to clarify his statement for the jury. “No,” Ladd said.
Arrest of South Side Crips Gang Member
Davis was arrested in 2023 on charges related to the death of Tupac, months after authorities served a search warrant on his Nevada property. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Detective Justine Gatus testified to the items they recovered during their search, including bins filled with newspaper clippings and magazine articles on the shooting of Tupac.
They also found a scrapbook with a search warrant dated May 27, 1997, from the Compton Police Department. On the back, it read in handwriting “money due bill for Monte Carlo Casino.”
Davis maintains innocence in the sense that he was not the one who fired the shots that killed Tupac. Any statements he made about the shooting from that night after leaving the fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas were covered under an immunity agreement with investigators or were fictionalized.
