LevelUp
Posting on THECOLI & MIND MY BUSINESS..
Duane Davis wasn’t arrested for the murder of Tupac Shakur until September 29, but his alleged involvement in the shooting was hardly news. Davis, a South Side Crips member known as Keefe D, was known to police as a suspect shortly after the killing, even if he’d never been charged. Since then, he’s publicly admitted to being in the car that shot Tupac not just in multiple interviews but also in his own memoir.
Following the 2018 series Death Row Chronicles on BET, which featured some of Keefe D’s first public comments on the shooting, Las Vegas police reviewed the case and confirmed it remained open. Police later said, upon Keefe D’s arrest, that this and following interviews led to him being charged. “It wasn’t until 2018 that this case was reinvigorated, as additional information came to light related to this homicide, specifically Duane Davis’s own admissions to his involvement in this homicide investigation that he provided to numerous different media outlets,” Lieutenant Jason Johansson said at a press conference on September 29. When police searched Keefe D’s house in July 2023, they took a copy of his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, co-written with Yusuf Jah, in which he further detailed the shooting
Police confession
Keefe D first spoke about his involvement in the shooting with Los Angeles police in 2008 for immunity in a PCP ring case. His confession was later reported in a 2011 book, Murder Rap, by Greg Kading, a former detective on the case. L.A. Weekly further reported his comments in a cover story. (The confession was also the basis for the 2018 Netflix series Unsolved, in which Lahmard Tate played Keefe D.) Keefe D told investigators that his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson,” shot Tupac from the car they were in. “If they would have drove on my side, I would have popped them,” Keefe D added. The gun was a Glock .40, he said, from a secret compartment in the armrest. “And I ain’t never told nobody that story, man,” he said.
Keefe D claimed that Sean “Diddy” Combs ordered the hit, allegedly telling him, “Man, I want to get rid of them dudes,” referring to Tupac and Suge Knight. (Combs told L.A. Weekly that Keefe D’s account was “pure fiction and completely ridiculous.”) Keefe D claimed Diddy’s issue with Knight stemmed from Knight’s infamous diss to the Bad Boy executive at the 1995 Source Awards. First, Diddy only wanted Knight, Keefe D would say, but he later targeted Tupac as well after “Hit ’Em Up,” a diss on the Notorious B.I.G. and Bad Boy. “That pissed [Combs] off,” Keefe D claimed. They allegedly settled the terms of the hit at Greenblatt’s Deli, where Keefe D asked for $1 million to kill both Tupac and Knight. Keefe D alleged he told Diddy, “We’ll wipe their ass out quick, man. It’s nothing.” After Tupac’s killing, Keefe D said the South Side Crips never got the alleged $500,000 payment from Diddy.
Unrelated to the shooting, Keefe D also told police that Diddy used his brown 1964 Chevy in Usher’s “Can U Get Wit It” music video. He claimed the car got “fukked up” from the shoot and that Combs paid him $2,500 to get it repainted. Vulture reached out to Diddy for comment on Keefe D’s claims but did not hear back.
Death Row Chronicles on BET
Following the 2018 series Death Row Chronicles on BET, which featured some of Keefe D’s first public comments on the shooting, Las Vegas police reviewed the case and confirmed it remained open. Police later said, upon Keefe D’s arrest, that this and following interviews led to him being charged. “It wasn’t until 2018 that this case was reinvigorated, as additional information came to light related to this homicide, specifically Duane Davis’s own admissions to his involvement in this homicide investigation that he provided to numerous different media outlets,” Lieutenant Jason Johansson said at a press conference on September 29. When police searched Keefe D’s house in July 2023, they took a copy of his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, co-written with Yusuf Jah, in which he further detailed the shooting
Police confession
Keefe D first spoke about his involvement in the shooting with Los Angeles police in 2008 for immunity in a PCP ring case. His confession was later reported in a 2011 book, Murder Rap, by Greg Kading, a former detective on the case. L.A. Weekly further reported his comments in a cover story. (The confession was also the basis for the 2018 Netflix series Unsolved, in which Lahmard Tate played Keefe D.) Keefe D told investigators that his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson,” shot Tupac from the car they were in. “If they would have drove on my side, I would have popped them,” Keefe D added. The gun was a Glock .40, he said, from a secret compartment in the armrest. “And I ain’t never told nobody that story, man,” he said.
Keefe D claimed that Sean “Diddy” Combs ordered the hit, allegedly telling him, “Man, I want to get rid of them dudes,” referring to Tupac and Suge Knight. (Combs told L.A. Weekly that Keefe D’s account was “pure fiction and completely ridiculous.”) Keefe D claimed Diddy’s issue with Knight stemmed from Knight’s infamous diss to the Bad Boy executive at the 1995 Source Awards. First, Diddy only wanted Knight, Keefe D would say, but he later targeted Tupac as well after “Hit ’Em Up,” a diss on the Notorious B.I.G. and Bad Boy. “That pissed [Combs] off,” Keefe D claimed. They allegedly settled the terms of the hit at Greenblatt’s Deli, where Keefe D asked for $1 million to kill both Tupac and Knight. Keefe D alleged he told Diddy, “We’ll wipe their ass out quick, man. It’s nothing.” After Tupac’s killing, Keefe D said the South Side Crips never got the alleged $500,000 payment from Diddy.
Unrelated to the shooting, Keefe D also told police that Diddy used his brown 1964 Chevy in Usher’s “Can U Get Wit It” music video. He claimed the car got “fukked up” from the shoot and that Combs paid him $2,500 to get it repainted. Vulture reached out to Diddy for comment on Keefe D’s claims but did not hear back.
Death Row Chronicles on BET
