NEWS
Tupac Detective Calls for Arrest of "Self-Confessed" Murder Accomplice Keffe D
AD
Tupac Shakur’s murder remains officially unsolved after 24 years, but one police officer who was originally assigned to investigate the crime says he not only knows who did it, he wants the suspect arrested, too.
Published on March 31, 2020

In 1996, legendary rapper Tupac Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas during a drive-by shooting. And now, one of the cops originally assigned to investigate both Tupac and the Notorious BIG’s deaths is demanding the immediate arrest of a gang leader who claims to have been an accomplice in Tupac’s murder. 

Last week, former LAPD officer Greg Kading said during an interview with The Sun that Las Vegas police should arrest Duane “Keefe D” Davis (sometimes spelled "Keffe D") for his alleged participation in Tupac’s death.

"He has confessed publicly multiple times about his role in the murder of Tupac,” Kading said. “And I cannot think of any case in American crime history where a confessing murderer is allowed to continue and go speak blatantly about his involvement in a crime. It is unprecedented.”

In recent years, Keffe D has, in fact, claimed in books and documentaries that he was partially responsible for Tupac’s death. Officer Kading also possesses LAPD archived audio recordings of his interviews with Keffe D, where Keffe D said he was hired by Bad Boy Records founder Sean “P. Diddy” Combs to kill Tupac and Suge Knight for $1 million.

Combs denies any involvement in Tupac’s murder. In the past, he said Keffe D and Kading’s allegations are “pure fiction and completely ridiculous.” Furthermore, Combs has never been questioned by police nor identified as a possible suspect. 

According to the LAPD recordings, Keffe D told Kading and other officers that he provided the Glock handgun that shot at Tupac and Tupac’s record producer, Suge Knight, hours after a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand. However, Keffe D has never admitted to actually pulling the trigger. Instead, he claimed his nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, a member of the Southside Crips, was the gunman. 

For over two decades, Tupac’s murder has been the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. Everyone from rival rappers and record producers to rogue LAPD vigilantes have been proposed as his killers. Some filmmakers and writers have even claimed that Tupac isn’t dead, and that he faked his death to avoid being murdered. 

Perhaps the least grandiose of theories explaining Tupac’s death is that it may have resulted from a brief but heated gang-related altercation in front of the MGM Grand just three hours before the shooting. Some eye witness accounts recounted that Tupac got into a scuffle with a group of gang members the night of his murder, though Anderson was allegedly involved in that physical attack, too. 

"It's almost like taunting law enforcement,” Officer Kading said to 3News last year regarding Keffe D’s alleged admissions on BET, VladTV, and in books. “It's embarrassing that something isn't being done at least to address those confessions."

Although Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson was originally considered a suspect in Tupac’s murder, he was later cleared, and he denied ever being involved. Less than two years after Tupac’s death, Anderson was killed during a gang-related shootout in Willowbrook, California. 

Additionally, one witness who was also a member of Tupac’s rap group Outlawz, Yaki Kadafi, told the Las Vegas Police Department that he could identify Tupac’s killers. Kadafi was driving behind Tupac’s vehicle when the shooting occurred. Two months after Tupac’s death, Kadafi was shot and killed in New Jersey.

Will Las Vegas police follow through on Kading’s call for Keffe D’s arrest? Given that Keffe D’s supposed confession has been public record for nearly a decade, and that many law enforcement officials considered Tupac a dangerous artist who glorified violence against cops, it may not happen any time soon — if ever. 

Additionally, confessions alone aren’t always enough to warrant prosecution; police often require substantial evidence, beyond a confession, that links a suspect to an alleged crime, too. Besides, most shooting crimes in the US go unsolved anyway. According to 3News, Las Vegas police have not closed Tupac’s murder investigation as of November 2019, though officials have not disclosed why.  

In 2010, Tupac was inducted into the US Library of Congress National Registry for the historical preservation of his 1995 single, “Dear Mama.” 

Follow Randy Robinson on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

NEWS
MUSIC
CELEBRITIES
HISTORY
MORE...
IN THIS STORY
CBD
Click to shop at our CBD store
Randy Robinson
FOLLOW
Based in Denver, Randy studied cannabinoid science while getting a degree in molecular biology at the University of Colorado. When not writing about cannabis, science, politics, or LGBT issues, they can be found exploring nature somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. Catch Randy on Twitter and Instagram @randieseljay
Share this article with your friends!
AD
By using our site you agree to our use of cookies to deliver a better experience.
Accept
Decline
MORE FROM MERRY JANE