Tupac Shakur’s haphazard murder and the 90s “beef” behind it

Last Friday Duane “Keffe D” Davis was charged for the 1996 murder of hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Shakur was shot and killed while riding as a passenger in the black BMW of Suge Knight – former CEO of renowned Death Row Records, also driving the car. A white Cadillac, of which Davis was one of four occupants (the other three are deceased), pulled up beside the BMW at a stop light near the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.

One of the occupants shot several times into the BMW. Knight was grazed by at least one of the bullets. He quickly drove away from the scene until he hit a road median, ultimately bringing the vehicle to a halt. Police arrived thereafter.

It’s well-known, 27 years after Shakur’s murder, that precipitating it was an altercation in the hotel lobby of the MGM Grand, involving Shakur (after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the hotel) physically assaulting Orlando Anderson – a member of the California-based street gang South Side Compton Crips. Immediately after, other members of Death Row, including Knight, helped Shakur continue the assault.

Lesser known however is why that altercation happened in the first place. Some might infer that it was simply because Shakur was provoked by the presence of Anderson automatically made him a target for Shakur, affiliated with the Mob Piru Bloods – another California-based street gang on acrimonious terms with the Crips.

Though there’s some truth to this there’s more to the story. To better grasp that it’s important to consider what had happened only weeks prior to Shakur’s murder – July 1996 – in California’s Lakewood Mall.

A number of Compton Crips had approached a group of the Bloods in a Foot Locker store. Among the Crips was Anderson.

He allegedly snatched a signature Death Row golden necklace that one of the Bloods and Death Row affiliate, Travyon “Tray” Lane, was wearing. It’s been rumoured that certain parties were awarding $10K to anyone able to rob the same type of chain.

Lane was with Tupac in the MGM lobby. When he saw Anderson he told him that he was the person who snatched his chain.

Known to be loyal and protector of his friends, Shakur was compelled to confront Anderson, asking him, “You from the South?” Shakur delivered the first blow to Anderson before he could answer.

So where does Davis come in to all of this? How does what happened between Anderson and Shakur implicate him?

Having learned about the assault on Anderson shortly after it occurred, Davis – Anderson’s uncle – decided to take revenge on Shakur. On the same evening as the assault, he and other criminal associates planned to do so by shooting Shakur on the grounds of Club 662, a Las Vegas music venue formerly owned by Knight and where Shakur was scheduled to perform.

The Crips waited for Shakur, parked outside the club. But when he didn’t show they left.

By Davis’ own chilling admission there may have been many more than just Shakur who would’ve been killed had Shakur appeared.

“They [sic] lucky they [Tupac and his entourage, the evening he was killed] didn’t show up, you know what I’m saying?” said Davis in a 2021 interview. “Cuz [sic] we had some head hunters [armed persons] with us … There would’ve been a massacre”.

It was by accident that when, again en route in the streets of Vegas, the Crips saw Shakur. Davis shared in the same interview that he would’ve missed Shakur were he not waving his body outside Knight’s vehicle. Shakur was apparently doing so to acknowledge female fans, driving close, excited to see the rap star. According to the fans in the 2015 documentary Murder Rap: Inside the Biggie and Tupac Murders, Shakur invited them to Club 662, with no inkling he’d be killed moments later.

Once Shakur was spotted, the Cadillac, going another direction, turned to follow the BMW and eventually open fire on it.

In Nevada, when you’re party to a murder you can be charged for the very same crime even if – like Davis – you didn’t pull the trigger of a gun that potentially caused it. Legally you’re just as guilty as the person who did. In the case of Shakur, it’s believed that Anderson did.

Many, like Shakur’s brother, have understandably been frustrated about law enforcement taking almost three decades to arrest Davis, despite his speaking publicly about his involvement in Shakur’s murder for years. This includes but is not limited to the 2018 Netflix series, Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G., and 2019 memoir by Davis, Compton Street Legend: Notorious Keffe D’s Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops.

The reasons for the delay are not fully clear though former LAPD officer Greg Kading – who investigated the Tupac murder – stated that in 2009 Davis had what’s known as a “proffer agreement”. This effectively allowed him to confess to Kading and other law enforcement about his involvement in Shakur’s murder, without the guarantee of not being prosecuted for it.

In subsequent years, well after the agreement was over, Davis continued to brag about the involvement, as if asking to be charged. Though that finally happened Friday, in part anticipated by a LVPD search of his home this past July, the public – from Shakur’s friends and family to his fans globally – deserve to know why he was allowed to be a free person at the same time.

Davis stole from them a rare talent who, through hip-hop, spoke to the difficult realities all too many face: poverty, racism, violence, drug abuse, racism, police brutality.

In doing so he gave world audiences a sense of closure, that they were not alone in their pain. America’s legal system can honour Shakur by doing similar and not further withhold the reasons why it took decades to prosecute his killer – hardly shy to admit just that.