Tupac Shakur's murder: a cold case for 27 years

In 2023, 27 years after hip-hop star Tupac Shakur was shot and killed, a man was arrested and charged with his murder. Let's have a look at the most shocking facts of the entire saga since 1996.

The story of Tupac's death is the 90s' cultural history. At the time, there was a huge rivalry in 'gangsta rap' between musicians of different studios and affiliations with organized crime.

Journalists have always assumed Tupac was shot for the mere reason of competition in the music industry. An interesting analysis of the saga was made in the third season of Slate's podcast 'Slow Burn.'

The shooting itself happened while Tupac was leaving the MGM Grand Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, right after Mike Tyson won the heavyweight championship. He was 25 years old.

Rap music mogul 'Suge' Knight put Shakur in the front passenger seat of the BMW and drove off after the event. A traffic light went red and Knight slowed to a stop.

In the image: Knight, who later ended up in prison for an unrelated crime.

A car pulled up alongside Knight's vehicle and opened gunfire. Tupac, with four gunshot wounds, died a week later from his injuries.

27 years after the attack, Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, aged 60, came clean about the events of that night.

Duane Davis was in the car where the gunshots were fired from. He claimed that he was in the front and passed a gun to his nephew in the backseat.

In a 2018 BET interview, Duane was asked: "Who shot Tupac?" and he answered evasively: "Going to keep it for the code of the streets. It just came from the backseat, bro."

However, in his 2019 memoir, 'Compton St Legend,' Duane Davis actually confessed to playing a part in the murder. He revealed in the book that he was in the same car that the shots were fired from.

In late September 2023, Duane Davis was arrested for the killing of Tupac. While multiple people are said to be involved in the shooting, he's the only suspect who's still alive.

Davis is likely to go down for the crime after he publicly boasted about assisting with the murder of Tupac. ABC News adds that the grand jury has voted to add more time to his sentence (another 20 years) for gang activity and deadly weapon use.

Of course, many know about the fate of Tupac due to the strange conspiracies that have surrounded his death - or lack of death. Prevalent theories claimed that Tupac faked his own death in order to escape the dangers of fame in the rap industry.

Some members of the public on forums and social media have hinted at the FBI being involved. Could it be that the murder of both Tupac and Notorious BIG, the rapper killed in 1997, was a way for authorities to bring an end to the violent rap culture of the time?

In general, many wonder why it has taken so long - 27 years - for someone to get arrested. Tupac's brother Morpheme has one theory. Speaking to Sky News, he says it was because of racism. The case of so-called 'black-on-black' violence just wasn't a priority for police, he suggests.

Photo: Sky News

After being asked if it would be the same for a white man, Morpheme replied "No. But that's just the nature of the beast in America." He did say, however, that "any accountability at this point, is good."

The police have revealed that Davis admitted his part in the murder back in 2009. "We knew about Davis all the way back from his initial confession... We sat him down back in 2009, and he confessed to his role in the murder along with other coconspirators," Greg Kading, an investigator on the case, told CNN. But they couldn't do anything about it.

"He had a proffer agreement, so we couldn't utilize that information... against him," the investigator continued. A proffer agreement means that the suspect is giving police valuable information and for that reason, his own statements cannot be used against him during that time.

Despite the delays to this case, it seems all are focused on finding out the truth and bringing those involved to justice. As Sheriff Kevin McMahill said: "Many people who did not believe the murder of Tupac Shukar was important to this police department, I am here to tell you: that was simply not the case."