A Las Vegas court has begun the long-awaited trial of former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis over the 1996 killing of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
According to Channels Television, citing AFP, prosecutors allege that Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, orchestrated the drive-by shooting and supplied the gun used in the attack.
Shakur, widely known as 2Pac, was shot on September 7, 1996, after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He died six days later at the age of 25.
Davis, now 63, has pleaded not guilty and faces life imprisonment without parole if convicted.
Prosecutors’ Case
Prosecutors say the killing was driven by a feud between rival gangs linked to the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry.
Earlier on the night of the shooting, Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight reportedly confronted and assaulted Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’s nephew and a member of the Crips, at the MGM Grand.
Prosecutors allege the incident prompted Davis to seek revenge.
Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and other men pulled alongside the vehicle carrying Shakur and Knight. Gunmen inside the Cadillac opened fire, striking Shakur.
The identity of the person who actually fired the fatal shots has never been established publicly.
Memoir Helped Revive Cold Case
The investigation remained unresolved for decades before Davis’s 2019 memoir brought renewed attention to the case.
In the book, Davis acknowledged that he was sitting in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and said he handed a firearm to people in the back. However, he did not identify the person who fired at Shakur.
The other people believed to have been inside the vehicle have since died.
Davis was arrested in September 2023 following renewed investigation into the case. He has since disputed his earlier accounts, claiming he was in Los Angeles when Shakur was killed and saying his memoir was largely written by his co-author.
“I’m innocent. I ain’t killed nobody,” Davis said during a 2025 interview with ABC News.
His lawyers unsuccessfully sought to prevent prosecutors from using his memoir and statements he made to police in 2008 as evidence.
Trial Expected To Last A Month
Jury selection is expected to take about a week, with the overall proceedings expected to last roughly a month.
The trial may not definitively establish who pulled the trigger, but prosecutors are seeking to prove that Davis played a central role in organising the attack.
The case has remained one of the most prominent unsolved murders in music history, generating decades of speculation among Shakur’s fans.
In May 2026, Shakur’s stepbrother, Maurice Shakur, also filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging that others involved in the rapper’s killing have never been held accountable.
The civil case also references claims involving Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is currently serving a prison sentence. Davis allegedly told police that Combs had offered $1 million to have Shakur killed. That allegation remains disputed and has not been established as fact.
