Who killed Tupac? What to know about the trial of Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis

Three decades after the killing of Tupac Shakur shocked the music world, a man in his 60s is finally going on trial for allegedly orchestrating the shooting.

The mystery of who killed the rapper has intrigued fans and conspiracy theorists alike since 1996. The trial of 63-year-old Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis could soon put the question to rest.

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Davis’s trial is set to begin on Monday in Las Vegas. He is charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.

United States prosecutors aim to prove it was Davis who orchestrated Tupac’s killing by supplying the gun – but they are not claiming he pulled the trigger.

Here’s what we know:

Who was Tupac Shakur?

Tupac Amaru Shakur, known popularly as Tupac or 2Pac, was a California-based rapper who became an icon of the genre during a short but glittering career in the 1990s. He released several Billboard-topping albums throughout his career, and more posthumously.

The rapper’s music drew heavily on his experiences of violence on the streets of California, as well as themes of gang life, single motherhood, love and romance, civil rights, and racism and police violence in America.

Tupac was signed to Death Row Records later in his career, and the affiliation played an influential role in his music. A defining theme of his career was a rivalry with East Coast rapper The Notorious B.I.G., a beef that led to the release of some of the two rappers’ most popular songs.

Tupac was involved in gang violence. He had previously survived another shooting before being fatally wounded in a drive-by attack in Nevada on September 7, 1996. He died six days later. He was 25.

What do we know about the night Tupac died?

Hours before his shooting, Tupac – alongside Death Row Records founder Marion ‘Suge’ Knight – got into a fight at the MGM Grand after a Mike Tyson boxing match. The group they fought with included Davis’s nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson.

Hours later, Tupac was shot six times from a white Cadillac while in a car on his way to a club he was set to perform at in Las Vegas.

Defendant Davis was one of four men in the Cadillac, authorities said.

The other three, including Davis’s nephew Anderson, have all died in the years since. Neither the car nor the gun used in the shooting had been recovered.

This undated photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows the bloodied driver’s seat that was occupied by Marion ‘Suge’ Knight in a car rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in September 1996, in Las Vegas [File: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via AP]

Who is Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, accused of orchestrating Tupac’s killing?

Davis is the only person to have ever been put on trial for killing Tupac. He entered a not guilty plea in November 2023.

Davis is the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, a California gang that has long been suspected of playing a part in Tupac’s murder. The gang had a rivalry with the Mob Piru gang, of which Tupac and Knight were affiliates.

Davis has been in jail since 2023 awaiting trial for his role in Tupac’s murder. In 2025, Davis was found guilty of battery following a fight in jail, Nevada media reported.

Why is a trial for Tupac’s killing happening now?

This trial is happening entirely because of Davis’s own words. His 2019 memoir – titled Compton Street Legend – opens in Las Vegas on the night of Tupac’s killing, and Davis explains in detail how he hunted the rapper and Knight through the city over the fight involving his nephew.

He wrote that he got a gun, entered a Cadillac with three others and drove around looking for Tupac and Knight. They spotted Tupac in a car and then pulled up next to it, he wrote.

“No words exchanged, the time for talking had passed, the s*** was about to go down!” his memoir reads.

He said the killing was a direct retaliation for the beating of his nephew, Anderson: “We couldn’t let no record company studio gangsters do us like that,” Davis wrote.

In interviews published on YouTube in recent years, Davis has spoken in granular detail about the night Tupac was shot, including revealing he thought that Knight had been killed in the first shot, which streets he and the others in the car waited on to find Tupac, and who played what role in the attack that night.

He has not named who fired the gun.

What can we expect from the trial?

The trial starts on Monday and is expected to last four to six weeks.

Its outcome hinges on Davis’s own admissions in his books and in tell-all interviews released since his memoir was published. Davis’s defence tried unsuccessfully to have his memoir excluded from the trial.

Under Nevada law, Davis can be charged with murder if he is found to have orchestrated Tupac’s killing, even if it was not him who pulled the trigger.

The result will boil down to whether the jury believes that Davis’s claims made in his memoir and elsewhere since 2019 were truthful or fabricated, as the defence will claim.

Prosecutors expect to call between 35 and 45 people to the stand, including police, technical witnesses and associates of both Tupac and Davis.

Knight is one of the few people directly involved in the incident to still be alive, but is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for running over and killing a Compton businessman in 2015. He has said he wants no part in the trial, but is on the witness list and may be summoned.

The defence intends to call only a handful of witnesses. They have not said whether Davis will testify.