Video shows arrest of Duane Davis in connection with Tupac’s homicide
Las Vegas police released more than an hour of body worn camera footage on Thursday showing Duane Davis’ arrest on a murder charge in connection with the 1996 shooting of Tupac Shakur.
Davis, who goes by the moniker “Keefe D” or “Keffe D,” was arrested outside his Henderson home on Friday, hours before prosecutors announced he was indicted on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.
The footage shows police approaching Davis as he is walking in a residential area in the early-morning light.
“Hey Keefe?” a Metro officer calls out. “Metro police — come over here.”
The officer grabs Davis’ wrist, walks him to a police car and handcuffs him. Davis said little as he was being handcuffed, other than to ask for a drink of water from the water bottle he was carrying. Davis is calm throughout, and the officers, at least on a surface level, are generally friendly with him.
After Davis is put in leg shackles, he is instructed to get into the front passenger seat of an officer’s black pickup truck. As an officer tells Davis how to get into the vehicle with the leg shackles on, and offers help, Davis says, “I’m a pro,” causing another officer to laugh.
In another clip that’s over 40 minutes long, an officer is driving Davis from where he was arrested near his house on Maple Shade Sreet in Henderson to Metro headquarters.
In another video that shows Davis being driven from Metro headquarters to the Clark County Detention Center, the officer who is driving Davis strikes up a conversation with Davis.
“So what they got you for, man?” the officer asks.
“Uh, the biggest case in Las Vegas history,” Davis says.
“Oh yeah, like, recent?” the officer asks.
It sounds like Davis says no, then he lists the date of Shakur’s killing. “Sept. 7, 1996,” he says.
After some banter, Davis says, “I ain’t worried,” followed by something difficult to hear clearly.
“Well, I mean, that’s what court’s for,” the officer says.
Davis then tells the officer about his arrest that morning, and the officer asks, “How long you been in Vegas for?”
It’s difficult to hear exactly what Davis is saying, but he mentions his wife’s career, and the two continue to chat amiably about a range of topics as the two sit in a parked vehicle outside Metro headquarters. The officer mentions being from New Jersey, as well as the street drugs he encounters in his work. They also chat about the different jails in the Las Vegas Valley.
“Alright, we are here, sir,” the officer says as they pull up to the Clark County Detention Center.
Davis, a member of the South Side Crips, is accused of being the “on-ground, on-sight commander” responsible for formulating the plan to shoot Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight on Sept. 7, 1996, in retaliation for a fight involving Davis’ nephew earlier that night at the MGM Grand.
Prosecutors have also alleged that the shooting was part of an ongoing feud between the South Side Crips and the Bloods-associated Mob Piru gang, who were known to provide security to Death Row Records.
Shakur was gunned down by someone in a white Cadillac in the drive-by shooting at Flamingo Road and Koval Lane and died of his wounds six days later.
Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, was named as a suspect in the shooting before Anderson was shot and killed himself in 1998. Davis has publicly tied himself to the crime in recent years, stating in interviews and his co-written book that he was in the car with the person who shot Shakur.
Police said Davis is the only man left alive of the four people believed to have been inside the car. Under Nevada law, someone can be charged with murder if prosecutors allege they aided and abetted in the crime.
Davis remains in the Clark County Detention Center without bail.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.