Who is Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, the man charged with Tupac’s killing?

Davis has a long history of gang affiliation in Southern California, identifying himself as a high-ranking member of the South Side Compton Crips. Other members of the gang have been linked to the killing for many years, notably Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson, who had a physical altercation with Shakur following a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas hours before Shakur’s killing. Anderson died in a 1998 shooting.

Davis has spoken about the killing at length on multiple occasions.

In a 2018 interview with BET, Davis described being in the white Cadillac that pulled up alongside Tupac’s BMW. Someone inside the car fired on Tupac’s vehicle, killing him. When asked who fired the gun, Davis responded: “Going to keep it for the code of the streets. It just came from the back seat, bro.”

In a 2008 interview with police, Davis stated that had he been in the back seat instead of the front, he would’ve been the one to shoot. “If he would have been on my side, I would have blasted,” Davis said.

He elaborated more in his 2019 book “Compton Street Legend”: “The s—t was on, Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat. It was the first and only time in my life that I could relate to the police command ‘keep your hands where I can see them.’ Instead, Pac pulled out a strap and that’s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started busting back. The first shot skinned Suge in the head, and I thought that motherf—ker was dead.”

In 2011, LA Weekly published a transcript of an interview between former LAPD detective Greg Kading, Davis and other law enforcement, in which Davis states that Sean “Diddy” Combs offered him $1 million to kill Tupac, which was never paid. 

Davis’ arrest and indictment Friday comes in the wake of a raid of his wife’s home in July 2023.