Last living suspect in 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur indicted in Las Vegas on murder charge

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From left, Las Vegas police Lt. Jason Johansson, Sheriff Kevin McMahill and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson attends a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill speaks beside a photo of Duane “Keefe D” Davis during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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This booking photo provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows Duane “Keffe D” Davis, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. Davis was charged in the 1996 fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)

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FILE - Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996. Las Vegas police said they have made an arrest, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, for the first time in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. (AP Photo/Frank Wiese, File)

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FILE - Rapper Tupac Shakur, left, and Death Row Records Chairman Marion Suge Knight, attend a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, on Aug. 15, 1996. Shakur died on Sept. 13, 1996, the victim of a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. Police have made an arrest for the killing of Shakur. . (AP Photo/Frank Wiese/File)

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FILE - The intersection of Harmon and Las Vegas Blvd., in Las Vegas, Sunday, Sept. 8, 1996, where rap superstar Tupac Shakur and Death Row Records Chairman Marion “Suge” Knight were shot. Las Vegas police have made an arrest for the first time in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey, File)

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Chief Judge Jerry Wiese listens as an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur is announced during a court hearing at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

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Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo announces an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur during a court hearing at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

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Clark County Chief Deputy Marc DiGiacomo, standing center, tells Chief Judge Jerry Wiese an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur during a court hearing at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

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FILE - A visitor observes a display of late hip hop artist Tupac Shakur during the press preview day for the “Tupac Shakur. Wake Me When I’m Free” exhibition, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, at The Canvas at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. The unsolved killing of Shakur has taken a major turn. Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested Friday morning, although the exact charge or charges were not immediately clear, according to two officials with first-hand knowledge of the arrest. The renewed activity comes nearly 30 years after Shakur was gunned down on Sept. 7, 1996. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

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FILE - Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, sister of the late Tupac Shakur, touches her brother’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as friends and family of the late rapper cheer during a ceremony on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, in Los Angeles. The unsolved killing of Tupac Shakur has taken a major turn. Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested Friday morning, although the exact charge or charges were not immediately clear, according to two officials with first-hand knowledge of the arrest. The renewed activity comes nearly 30 years after Shakur was gunned down on Sept. 7, 1996. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

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This photo provided by the Las Vegas Police Department shows Duane “Keffe D” Davis during his arrest in Las Vegas, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. Davis was charged in the 1996 fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur. (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)

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CAPTION CORRECTION: CORRECTS SPELLING OF NAME: Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson stands beside a photo of Duane “Keffe D” Davis during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. Monitor in rear has name misspelled. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill speaks during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill speaks during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson speaks during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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CAPTION CORRECTION: CORRECTS SPELLING OF NAME: Las Vegas police Lt. Jason Johansson of the Homicide Section speaks beside a photo of Duane “Keffe D” Davis during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. The screen in rear have name misspelled. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson speaks during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson speaks during a news conference on an indictment in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)

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A portion of a mural by artist sloe_motions depicting Tupac Shakur is seen on the side of Speedy Auto Tint on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Bellflower, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

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A portion of a mural by artist sloe_motions depicting Oscar De La Hoya, Vin Scully, Kobe Bryant, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur is seen on the side of Speedy Auto Tint on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Bellflower, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

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A portion of a mural by artist sloe_motions depicting Kobe Bryant, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur is seen on the side of Speedy Auto Tint on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Bellflower, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

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A portion of a mural by artist sloe_motions depicting Vin Scully, Kobe Bryant, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur is seen on the side of Speedy Auto Tint on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Bellflower, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

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A portion of a mural by artist sloe_motions depicting Vin Scully, Kobe Bryant, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur and Danny Trejo is seen on the side of Speedy Auto Tint on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Bellflower, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

By RIO YAMAT and KEN RITTER

LAS VEGAS (AP) — One of the last living witnesses to the fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas was charged with murder with use of a deadly weapon Friday in the 1996 killing, a long-awaited breakthrough in a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public ever since the hip-hop icon was gunned down 27 years ago.

A Nevada grand jury indicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the killing, prosecutors announced in court Friday. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said a grand jury had been seated in the case for “several months.” DiGiacomo described Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of Shakur.

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The charges were revealed hours after Davis, 60, was arrested this morning while on a walk near his home, according to DiGiacomo.

Davis has long been known to investigators and has himself admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he was in the Cadillac from which the gunfire erupted during the September 1996 drive-by shooting. Shakur was 25 when he was killed.

Las Vegas police raided a home in mid-July in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson that is tied to Davis. Police were looking for items “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur,” according to the search warrant. They collected multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two “tubs containing photographs” and a copy of Davis’ memoir.

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Police seized laptops, memoir from Vegas-area home of witness to Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing

A Las Vegas-area home searched by police investigating the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996 is tied to Duane “Keffe D” Davis. He’s an author and the uncle of a long-dead suspect.

· RIO YAMAT, KEN RITTER

Clark County District Judge Jerry Wiese denied Davis bail. “It has often been said that justice delayed is justice denied,” District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after the hearing in a brief comment to AP. “In this case, justice has been delayed, but justice won’t be denied.”

It wasn’t immediately clear if Davis has an attorney who can comment on his behalf. Davis hasn’t responded to multiple phone and text messages from The Associated Press seeking comment or an interview in the more than two months since the house raid.

Shakur was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight in a convoy of about 10 cars. They were waiting at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later at the age of 25.

The rapper’s death came as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. Nominated six times for a Grammy Award, Shakur is still largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.

In his memoir, Davis said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped the gun used in the killing into the backseat, from where he said the shots were fired.

Davis implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the backseat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a casino brawl with the rapper shortly before the shooting.

After the casino brawl, “Mr. Davis formulated a plan to exact revenge upon Mr. Knight and Mr. Shakur” in his nephew’s defense, DiGiacomo said.

Anderson died two years later. He denied any involved in Shakur’s death.

Davis revealed in his memoir that he first broke his silence in 2010 during a closed-door meeting with federal and local authorities. At the time, he was 46 and facing life in prison on drug charges when he agreed to speak with them about Tupac’s killing, as well as the fatal shooting six months later of Tupac’s rap rival, Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G.,

“They offered to let me go for running a ‘criminal enterprise’ and numerous alleged murders for the truth about the Tupac and Biggie murders,” he wrote. “They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out.”

Shakur was feuding at the time with rap rival Biggie Smalls, who was fatally shot in March 1997. At the time, both rappers were in the middle of an East Coast-West Coast rivalry that primarily defined the hip-hop scene during the mid-1990s.

Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years investigating the Shakur killing and wrote a book about it, said he’s not surprised by Davis’ arrest.

The former Los Angeles police detective said he believed the investigation gained new momentum in recent years following Davis’ public descriptions of his role in the killing, including his 2019 memoir.

“It’s those events that have given Las Vegas the ammunition and the leverage to move forward,” Kading said. “Prior to Keffe D’s public declarations, the cases were unprosecutable as they stood.”