A former gang member accused with killing hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 made his first court appearance in a Las Vegas court on Wednesday (Oct. 4, 23). He was given a two-week extension to make a plea.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, informed Clark County district judge Tierra Jones that his attorney had asked a two-week continuance on his behalf. According to investigators, Davis had been long suspected and had started incriminating himself in recent public statements. That request was granted, and Jones scheduled his subsequent appearance for October 19.
Davis, who remains in custody without bond, was indicted by a Clark County grand jury last week and arrested in Las Vegas for Shakur’s drive-by shooting death, a long-unsolved crime that became a defining moment in the history of rap music.
Davis was charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon for his alleged role in leading a group of men to kill Shakur in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas strip.
Authorities claim that David masterminded a scheme to exact revenge on Shakur and members of his entourage for beating his nephew Orlando Anderson inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena on the evening of September 7, 1996, just hours before the killing.
At a news conference last week, police played security video from the hotel that they claimed showed three individuals fighting with a man they identified as Anderson near a bank of elevators before security personnel intervened.
According to investigators, that encounter prompted Shakur to be shot and killed in retaliation.
After getting a gun from an unidentified associate, Davis, Anderson, Terrence Brown, and Deandre Smith got into a white Cadillac and drove off to look for Shakur’s black BMW, according to the police.
Shots were fired from the Cadillac into the passenger side of the BMW as Davis and the others approached Shakur’s car. Shakur, who had been hit four times, passed away at the age of 25 in a hospital six days later.
Authorities have not revealed who shot Shakur with the gun. Davis’ fellow passengers in the Cadillac, three others, have since passed away.
