New details regarding one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries the 1996 murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur are expected to surface during the upcoming trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to begin on August 10.
Davis 63, has pleaded not guilty to orchestrating the infamous Las Vegas drive-by shooting that killed the 25-year-old rapper and wounded former Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight.
On September 7, 1996 Shakur and Knight were stopped in a black BMW near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside them and opened fire. Prosecutors state the violence stemmed from a fierce gang rivalry and served as retaliation for a casino brawl earlier that night during which Shakur and his associates beat up Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson.
Davis is the sole surviving occupant of the Cadillac. The other three men in the car driver Terry Brown, Anderson and DeAndre “Big Dre” Smith all died in subsequent years without facing charges for Shakur’s murder.
While law enforcement long suspected that Anderson fired the fatal shots, recent grand jury testimony has challenged that narrative. A former associate testified that it was actually Smith who took the gun from Anderson in the backseat and opened fire, later allowing Anderson to take the credit. Neither the murder weapon which Davis admitted to providing nor the Cadillac was ever recovered by police.
As the trial approaches, Davis and the 61-year-old Knight who is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for an unrelated 2015 killing remain the only living eyewitnesses to the tragic event that forever altered the music industry. The upcoming proceedings may finally provide closure to Shakur's family and fans worldwide.
