Police likely waited years before arresting the man who had openly discussed his involvement in Tupac Shakur’s killing so he would provide a “compilation” of confessions, a retired detective who once investigated the shocking murder told The Post.
On Friday, Las Vegas Police arrested and charged with murder Duane “Keefe D” Davis, who five years ago revealed in a documentary interview he was riding in a white Cadillac where a back-seat shooter opened fire at Tupac’s BMW in Sin City in 1996.
Davis and others in the Cadillac were reportedly members of the notorious Los Angeles street gang the South Side Compton Crips, while Tupac was affiliated with the Bloods, a rival LA gang.
Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective, said that with Davis sharing his ties to the shooting in interviews, followed by a tell-all memoir, Las Vegas PD likely delayed arresting him so he would continue providing additional evidence for a airtight case.
“Perhaps what they were doing was saying, ‘He’s already tied the noose, now, let’s let him hang himself,’” speculated Kading, who previously investigated Shakur’s killing.
“‘You didn’t just say it twice, you didn’t just say it five times,’ and so now you’ve got this compilation of so many confessions,” Kading said, adding, “The perception is that it’s going to be hard for him at this point to say, ‘Hey, I was just kind of boasting, making stuff up.’”
In 2018, after he was diagnosed with cancer, Davis brazenly provided details to BET about the drive-by shooting, including that he was in the front seat of the Cadillac.
A year later, in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” Davis painted himself as one of the last living witnesses to Tupac’s murder while recounting details of the slaying.
“One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back,” Davis wrote. “As the rounds continued flying, I ducked down so that I wouldn’t get hit.”
Davis also claimed in his book that his nephew Orlando Anderson, who also was a member of the South Side Compton Crips, fatally shot Tupac.
Anderson, who died in 1998, denied any involvement in Shakur’s murder and was never charged.
Clark County Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo described Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” and “shot caller” who “ordered the death” of Shakur.
Nevada does not have a statute of limitations for prosecuting murder cases.
