Entertainment

Defendant in rapper Tupac Shakur killing appears in court

This handout picture provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on September 29, 2023 shows the booking picture of Duane "Keffe D" Davis. - A former gang leader was charged Friday with the 1996 murder of rap legend Tupac Shakur, whose shooting death rocked the music world and exposed the violent underbelly of the popular gangsta rap genre. Duane "Keffe D" Davis was arrested around a decade after he began to speak publicly about his involvement in the slaying, boasting that he was the "on-site commander" of the effort to murder Shakur and Death Row Records boss Suge Knight. (Photo by Handout / Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS /

By Dennis Tarus | Thursday, October 5, 2023

By AFP

The man accused of murder in connection with the gang-feud slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur

a quarter of a century ago appeared in a US court Wednesday.

Duane "Keefe D" Davis, 60, was charged last week over the killing, despite not being the man

wielding the weapon in Las Vegas in 1996.

Davis was brought into court in handcuffs and wearing blue detention centre clothes, the Las

Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The formal arraignment was delayed and Davis did not enter a plea to the charge of

murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.

Davis has long acknowledged his involvement in the slaying, boasting he was the "on-site

commander" in the effort to kill Shakur and Death Row Records boss Marion "Suge" Knight in

revenge for an assault on his nephew.

Under Nevada law, anyone who aids or abets a murder can be charged with the killing, in the

same way that a getaway driver can be charged with bank robbery even if he never entered

the bank.

Shakur, the best-selling hip-hop artist behind hits such as "California Love," "Changes," and

"Dear Mama," was already a huge star in the world of rap when he was gunned down on

September 7, 1996. He was just 25.

He was signed to Death Row Records, an outfit associated at the time with Los Angeles street

gang Mob Piru, which had a long-standing beef with the South Side Compton Crips - an outfit

in which Davis was a key figure.

Prosecutors said last week that what happened on the night of the killing had been largely

understood for many years, but they had not had sufficient admissible evidence to advance

the case.

That began to change when Davis, reportedly the only person in the car that night still alive,

published an autobiography and spoke about the crime for a TV show.

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