How Tupac arrest of Duane Davis was sparked by ‘confession’ during Notorious BIG probe in murder mystery breakthrough
THE bombshell arrest of a gangster in connection with the fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur all began as he "confessed" during a probe into the murder of Biggie Smalls.
Duane (Keefe D) Davis has found himself at the centre of two of the biggest unsolved cases in hip-hop history.
Davis, 60, was arrested early Friday morning in Los Angeles - months after investigators raided his home in Henderson, Nevada.
It followed The U.S. Sun sending a landmark recording to the Las Vegas police in which Keefe openly admitted to knowledge of the "hit" on Tupac.
It was these public boasts that appear to have led to the notorious Compton Crip gang leader's arrest as he was charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
One retired cop has now revealed detectives' attention was first drawn to Keefe as part of a probe into the murder of Biggie Smalls, The Notorious BIG.
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After 27 years, prosecutors believe they now have one of them responsible for the gunning down of Tupac in Sin City on September 7, 1996.
Former Los Angeles cop Greg Kading interviewed Davis back in 2009 in connection with the murder of Smalls.
Davis had been a person of interest in the probe.
And it was then he is alleged to have made his first "confession".
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The Juicy singer was killed on March 9, 1997 after being shot four times during a drive-by shooting in an eerily similar case to Tupac's death six months earlier.
Davis had been with Smalls at a party moments before was killed in a drive-by shooting that chillingly mirrored his rival rapper's death six months earlier.
Kading had helped to build a federal drug case against Davis in order to use it as leverage to compel him to talk to police.
"He confesses to his involvement in the Tupac Shakur case, he gives all the details of how he and his co-conspirators killed Tupac," the former detective told AP.
Davis, who had immunity for what he said in the police interview but not anything he said outside of it, went on to brag publicly about his involvement.
“He has essentially talked himself right into jail,” Kading said.
It was boastful interviews like the one sent to police by The U.S Sun which appear to have brought down Keefe.
Since 2018, the gangster bragged in documentaries, podcasts and TV interviews that he was the one who provided the handgun used to fire the fatal shots at the 25-year-old Death Row rapper.
Tupac died a week later from his wounds.
In his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, Davis once again confessed to have been riding shotgun when he handed his nephew Orlando Anderson the weapon used in the shooting.
It proved to be the smoking gun in the decade-long case and led to the latest police probe, which secured his grand jury indictment.
The street gangster had long been known to investigators and was identified early on as one of four suspects.
Today, he is the only living witness and suspect.
'LONG OVERDUE'
Retired Los Angeles detective Greg Kading said that Davis' arrest has been a long time coming.
“It’s so long overdue,” he told AP. “People have been yearning for him to be arrested for a long time."
"It’s never been unsolved in our minds. It’s been unprosecuted,” Kading said of Tupac's murder.
The former cop also explained that he previously interviewed and questioned Keefe D between 2008 and 2009 about Tupac's murder and possible information on Biggie Smalls' killing.
He believed the case gained considerable momentum after Keefe D was so public with descriptions about what allegedly happened the night the rap icon was killed.
“It’s those events that have given Las Vegas the ammunition and the leverage to move forward,” Kading said of what's detailed in Compton Street Legend.
“Prior to Keefe D’s public declarations, the cases were unprosecutable as they stood.”
Kading added: "He put himself squarely in the middle of the conspiracy.”
“[Keefe D] had acquired the gun, he had given the gun to the shooter, and he had been present in the vehicle when they hunted down and located both Tupac and Suge.”
This exact moment was written about in Davis' memoir, in which he detailed how he secured the gun as revenge for Tupac beating up his nephew after a Mike Tyson fight in the MGM Grand earlier that night.
In the confessional passage, he described how he threw the Glock pistol in the back of a Cadillac, where his nephew Anderson and another gangster sat.
After encountering the rapper by chance, Davis revealed that shots were fired from behind him into Suge and Tupac's vehicle as they were driving along the Strip.
Back in May, The U.S. Sun sent Las Vegas police a link to a new YouTube interview in which Keefe claimed that the fee for the assassination was $1million,.
He revealed that the fee was paid by a famous hip-hop star to a gang member named Eric Von Zip.
Zip was supposed to pay the killer, but took it for himself, according to Keefe’s claims on the Vlad TV channel.
The U.S. Sun went to cops after being contacted by various sources who were frustrated that investigators appeared to be ignoring evidence from Keefe.
Kading said he thinks Keefe D could face a first-degree murder charge if the killing is determined as premeditated.
“It’s a concerted effort of conspirators,” he said following the arrest.
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“All the other direct conspirators or participants are all dead.
“Keefe D is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac.
