Police charge alleged mastermind behind Tupac Shakur's death with murder

It's been nearly three decades since the rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The arrest is a long-awaited break in a case that has long frustrated investigators.

Tupac Shakur was killed during a drive-by shooting in 1996. Source: Getty / Al Pereira

KEY POINTS

• US police have charged Duane "Keffe D" Davis with murder over his alleged role in the death of Tupac Shakur.
• Police allege Davis "orchestrated" the plan to kill Shakur.
• Shakur was killed during a drive-by shooting in 1996.

An admitted former street gang leader has been arrested on a charge of murder in the Las Vegas shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur nearly three decades ago, a long-unsolved crime that became a defining moment in the history of rap music.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who police said was long suspected and began implicating himself in a series of public statements in recent years, was taken into custody on Friday outside his home a day after a grand jury in Clark County, Nevada, returned an indictment against him.

The indictment was presented during a brief hearing on Friday to a judge who ordered Davis, 60, to remain jailed without bond until an initial court appearance set for next Wednesday.

Davis was charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon for his alleged role in leading a group of men to kill Shakur in a 1996 drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas strip.

Police say Davis 'orchestrated' plan

Authorities described Davis as the "shot caller" of a hurried plot to avenge the beating of his nephew, Orlando Anderson, inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena by members of Shakur's entourage on the night of 7 September, 1996, not long before the shooting.

"He orchestrated the plan that was carried out to commit this crime," Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Jason Johansson said at a news conference.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis was arrested early on Friday morning. Source: AAP, AP / John Locher

Police showed hotel security footage of several men kicking and punching a person they identified as Anderson near a bank of elevators before security personnel broke up the altercation.

One of those seen attacking Anderson was identified as Marion "Suge" Knight, co-founder and then-CEO of Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, which distributed Shakur's records.

That incident, Johansson said, led to "the retaliatory shooting death of Tupac Shakur".

After obtaining a gun from an unnamed associate, Davis, along with Anderson and two other men, Terrence Brown and Deandre Smith, boarded a white Cadillac and rode off to locate the black BMW that Knight had driven away from the hotel with Shakur as his passenger.

When Davis and the others caught up to Shakur and Knight's vehicle, shots were fired from the Cadillac into the passenger side of the BMW. Shakur, struck four times, died in a hospital six days later at the age of 25.

The arrest is a long-awaited break in a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public ever since Shakur was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip 27 years ago. Source: AAP, AP / Todd Plitt

Knight, who was grazed in the head by a bullet fragment but suffered only minor injuries, was sent to prison the following month for violating terms of his probation in a previous assault case when he was caught taking part in the MGM melee.

Not known who fired at Shakur

Authorities did not say who actually fired the gun at Shakur. The other three men who were in the Cadillac with Davis, including his nephew, are all since deceased, they said.

Shakur, an influential performer widely regarded as one of rap music's greatest artists, was also one of its most commercially successful, selling more than 75 million records worldwide.