Nearly 30 years ago, Tupac Shakur, known by the stage name 2Pac, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One of four men in a white Cadillac fired 13 shots into the 25-year-old rap legend\u2019s vehicle, according to TIME reporting from September 1996. Shakur was riding with the co-founder of Death Row Records, Marion \u201cSuge\u201d Knight. Knight was grazed by a bullet but survived. Shakur was shot multiple times, and one bullet tore through his lung; he was pronounced dead at the hospital six days later on Sept. 13, 1996.<\/p>\n
The events that unfolded have been the subject of many true crime documentaries, books, and podcasts. But one fundamental question has remained unresolved: Who was responsible for Shakur's death?<\/p>\n
The first person ever charged in Shakur\u2019s murder faces trial on Monday in Nevada.<\/p>\n
On trial is Duane \u201cKeffe D\u201d Davis, 63, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips. At the time of Shakur\u2019s murder, the Crips were associated with the New York-based Bad Boy Records amid a hip-hop rivalry with the Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, which signed Shakur.<\/p>\n
Davis is not accused of firing the shots that killed Shakur; rather, prosecutors allege that he orchestrated the attack. He is charged with \u201cmurder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang.\u201d Under Nevada law, someone who aids or abets a crime\u2014or encourages, hires, commands, or otherwise induces another person to commit it\u2014can be prosecuted as a principal.<\/p>\n
Shakur\u2019s murder went unsolved for years, but it never faded from public interest. In 2008, law enforcement interviewed Davis, but a proffer agreement that his defense says prevented his statements from later being used against him.<\/p>\n
In 2019, Davis published his memoir, \u201cCompton Street Legend.\u201d He gave multiple interviews promoting his book\u2014and the role of the Crips in Shakur\u2019s death. He describes himself as \u201cone of the only living eyewitnesses to Tupac\u2019s killing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTupac was a guppy that got swallowed up by some ferocious sharks,\u201d Davis wrote, though he said he felt \u201ca deep sense of remorse for what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those public disclosures helped revive the investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Davis was arrested in 2023, when he was charged with obtaining a gun \u201cfor the purpose of seeking retribution against\u201d Shakur and Knight. Prosecutors allege that the gun Davis obtained the night of the shooting was expressly intended to deliver retribution for an incident earlier in the evening in which Shakur and his associates attacked Davis\u2019s nephew, Orlando \u201cBaby Lane\u201d Anderson.<\/p>\n
The altercation took place after Shakur and Knight attended Mike Tyson\u2019s boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Footage from the hotel lobby shows the two, along with others in their entourage, confronting Anderson after the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that,\u201d Davis wrote in his memoir, before describing the moment that he and three other men\u2014his nephew Anderson, DeAndre \u201cDre\u201d Smith, and Terrence \u201cT-Brown\u201d Brown, all of whom have since died\u2014eventually spotted Shakur on the street in Las Vegas that night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo words exchanged, the time for talking had passed,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Davis described passing a handgun to the back of the Cadillac as they approached Shakur\u2019s vehicle in his book\u2014but he did not say who fired the fatal shots. It remains unclear which of the two individuals in the backseat, Anderson or Smith, actually shot Shakur.\u00a0<\/p>\n