LOS ANGELES: A quarter of a century after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a gang feud in Las Vegas, a man was charged on Friday with his murder, a killing that came to symbolise the violence of gangsta rap as it surged into the mainstream.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, had 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 his nephew’s assault.

Davis’ early morning arrest followed 27 years of investigations by police, who had been frustrated by an apparent lack of useable evidence, and came two months after they raided his home in Henderson, just outside Las Vegas.

“The presumption is great that he is responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur, and he will be found guilty of murder with use of a deadly weapon,” prosecu­tor Marc DiGiacomo told a court in Nevada.

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 in Las Vegas on Sept 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 Southside Compton Crips.

DiGiacomo said on the day of the murder, Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Knight were in Las Vegas to watch Mike Tyson fight. In a hotel elevator lobby they set upon Crips member Orlando Anderson, the nephew of Davis. “(Davis) formulated a plan to exact revenge upon Mr Knight and Mr Shakur” for this beating, DiGiacomo said. “He acquired a 40-caliber Glock firearm from a drug associate.

“He gets into (a light-colored) Cadillac and he provides the 40-caliber Glock firearm to one of the two individuals in the back seat,” and the group set off to find their intended victims. The two rap moguls were spotted in a car on a Las Vegas street.

“They pulled up next to the vehicle and the rear passenger fired a number of rounds out of that vehicle striking Mr Knight in the head and Mr Shakur several times,” DiGiacomo said. Shakur died in a hospital several days later. Knight survived.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2023