Duane Davis (gangster)

On September 7, 1996, at 11:15 p.m. ( PDT), Tupac Shakur, a 25-year-old American rapper, was shot in a drive-by shooting in Paradise, Nevada. The shooting occurred when the car carrying Shakur was stopped at a red light at East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. The driver, Marion "Suge" Knight, was grazed by a bullet in the shooting. Shakur died from his injuries six days later, on September 13, 1996.

Shakur was struck by four rounds fired from a .40-calibre Glock: two in the chest, one in the arm, and one in the thigh.

Orlando Anderson, a Crips gang member, was suspected in the murder but denied being involved and was never charged. He was killed in an unrelated gang shootout in 1998. On September 29, 2023, 27 years after Shakur's murder, Duane "Keefe D" Davis, Anderson's uncle, was arrested after being indicted by a grand jury for the first-degree murder of Shakur.

Prior events

Tupac Shakur attended the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson boxing match with Marion "Suge" Knight, the head of Death Row Records, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After leaving the match, one of Knight's associates, Trevon "Tre" Lane, a member of the M.O.B. Pirus gang based in Compton, California, spotted Orlando Anderson, from the rival South Side Compton Crips gang, in the MGM Grand lobby. Earlier that year, in July 1996, Anderson and a group of South Side Crips attempted to rob Lane in a Foot Locker store at the Lakewood Center mall in Lakewood, California.

Lane told Shakur, who in turn attacked Anderson in the lobby. Shakur asked Anderson if he was from the "South" (South Side Crips) and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground. Shakur and Knight's entourage assisted in assaulting Anderson. The fight, which was captured on the MGM Grand's video surveillance, was broken up by hotel security.

After the brawl, Shakur returned to his hotel, the Luxor Las Vegas. He disclosed to his girlfriend Kidada Jones his involvement in the Anderson fight, previously having promised to return to her after entering the MGM Grand and having her stay in a vehicle. Shakur left with Knight in a BMW sedan after changing clothes and went to Club 662, which was owned by Knight, to perform at a charity concert.

Minutes before the shooting, Shakur's friend Leonard Jefferson captured an infamous image of him in the vehicle with Knight. This image ended up being one of the last images of Shakur.

Shooting and aftermath

At 11:00–11:05 p.m. ( PDT), Shakur and Knight were halted on Las Vegas Boulevard by officers from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Bike Patrol for playing the car stereo too loudly and not having license plates. The plates were found in the trunk of Knight's car. The party was released a few minutes later without being cited. At 11:10 p.m., while they were stopped at a red light at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their left side. Shakur, who was talking through the window of his brand new 1996 BMW 750iL, exchanged words with the two women and invited them to go to Club 662.

At 11:15 p.m., a white, four-door, late-model Cadillac pulled up to Knight's right side. The shooter, seated at the back of the Cadillac, rolled down the window and rapidly fired gunshots from a .40 S&W Glock 22 at Shakur's BMW. Shakur was hit four times: twice in the chest, once in the arm, and once in the thigh. One of the bullets went into Shakur's right lung.Detailed information on the fatal shooting
at Knight was hit in the head by fragmentation.

Shakur's bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with Shakur in Knight's car, Shakur asked him to drive Jones's car instead, in case they needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to their hotel. Alexander reported in his documentary, ''Before I Wake'', that shortly after the assault, one of the convoy's cars followed the assailant, but he never heard from the occupants. Yaki Kadafi was riding in the car behind Shakur with bodyguards at the time of the shooting and, along with members of the Death Row entourage, refused to cooperate with police.

Despite Knight's injuries and his vehicle having a flat tire, he was able to drive Shakur and himself a mile from the site to Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. They were again pulled over by the Bike Patrol, who alerted paramedics through radio. After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Knight and Shakur to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. They were pulled over just a short distance from the MGM Grand, where their evening had begun.

Gobi Rahimi, a Death Row music video director who visited Shakur at the hospital, later reported that he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the record label and threatened Shakur.Interview with Gobi
at http://www.hitemup.com/ Gobi told Las Vegas police, but said they claimed to be understaffed. No attackers came to the hospital. Shakur said he was dying while being carried into the emergency room.

At the hospital, Shakur was heavily sedated, was placed on life support machines, and was ultimately put under a medically-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of bed. He was visited by Jones and regained consciousness when she played Don McLean's "Vincent" on the CD player next to his bed. According to Jones, Shakur moaned, and his eyes were "filled with mucus and swollen." Jones told Shakur that she loved him.

Knight was released from the hospital the day following the shooting on September 8, but did not speak until September 11. He told officers he "heard something, but saw nothing" the night of the shooting. A spokesman for the officers said Knight's statement did nothing to help the investigation. Officers at the time of Shakur's hospitalization reported having no leads. Sgt. Kevin Manning said during the week that officers did not receive "a whole lot of cooperation" from Shakur's entourage.

Rahimi and members of Shakur's group, Outlawz, guarded Shakur while he stayed in the hospital due to their fear that whoever shot Shakur "was gonna come finish him off." Rahimi mentioned the possibility that Outlawz brought weapons with them. While in the critical care unit on the afternoon of Friday, September 13, 1996, Shakur died of respiratory failure that led to cardiac arrest after the removal of his right lung. Doctors attempted to revive him but could not stop the hemorrhaging. His mother, Afeni, made the decision to cease medical treatment. He was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m.

In 2014, a police officer who claimed he witnessed Shakur's last moments said Shakur refused to state who shot him. When the officer asked Shakur if he saw the person or people who shot him, Shakur responded by saying, "Fuck you" to the officer as his last words. Paramedics and other officers present at the scene did not report hearing Shakur say those words, nor did Knight or Alexander, who were also present.

Investigative reports on the murder

One year after the shooting, Sgt. Kevin Manning, who headed the investigation, told ''Las Vegas Sun'' investigative reporter Cathy Scott that Shakur's murder "may never be solved." The case slowed early in the investigation, he said, as few new clues came in and witnesses clammed up. Manning stated that the investigation was at a standstill. E.D.I. Mean, a collaborator of Shakur's and a member of Outlawz, said he was positive law enforcement knew "what happened" and added, "This is America. We found bin Laden."

In 2002, the ''Los Angeles Times'' published a two-part story by Chuck Philips, titled "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?" based on a year-long investigation. Philips reported that "the shooting was carried out by a Compton gang called the South Side Crips to avenge the beating of one of its members by Shakur a few hours earlier. Orlando Anderson, the Crip whom Shakur had attacked, fired the fatal shots. Las Vegas police considered Anderson a suspect and interviewed him only once, briefly. Anderson was killed nearly two years later in an unrelated gang shooting." Philips's article also implicated East Coast rappers, including The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac's rival at the time, and several New York City criminals.

The second article in Philips' seriesTupac Shakur