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Man tied to suspected shooter in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing arrested in Las Vegas, sources say

Published

2 years ago

September 29, 2023

Man tied to suspected shooter in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing arrested in Las Vegas, sources say

LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas police have arrested a man in the deadly 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, a long-awaited break in a case that has frustrated investigators and fascinated the public ever since the hip-hop icon was gunned down on the Las Vegas Strip 27 years ago.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested early Friday morning, although the exact charge or charges were not immediately clear, according to two officials with first-hand knowledge of the arrest. They were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of an expected indictment later Friday.

Davis has long been known to investigators and has himself admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” that he was in the Cadillac where the gunfire erupted during the September 1996 drive-by shooting. Shakur was 25 when he was gunned down.

The arrest comes two months after Las Vegas police raided his wife’s home July 17 in neighboring Henderson. Documents said police were looking for items “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”

Police reported collecting multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, two “tubs containing photographs” and a copy of Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”

In the book, Davis said he broke his silence over Tupac’s killing in 2010 during a closed-door meeting with federal and local authorities. At the time, he was 46 and facing life in prison on drug charges when he agreed to speak with the authorities.

“They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out,” he wrote.

He has described himself as one of the last living witnesses to the shooting.

Shakur was 25 when he was gunned down in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on the night of Sept. 7, 1996. The rapper was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight in a convoy of about 10 cars. They were waiting at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted.

Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later.

In 2018, after a cancer diagnosis, Davis admitted publicly in an interview for a BET show to being inside the Cadillac during the attack. He implicated his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the back seat where the shots were fired.

The shooting happened shortly after a casino brawl earlier in the evening involving Anderson, Shakur and others.

Anderson denied any involvement in the Shakur shooting. He died two years later in a shooting in Compton, California.

Shakur’s death came as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies sold. Nominated six times for a Grammy Award, Shakur is largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.

Shakur was feuding at the time with rap rival Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G., who was fatally shot in March 1997. At the time, both rappers were in the middle of an East Coast-West Coast rivalry that primarily defined the hip-hop scene during the mid-1990s.

Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective who spent years investigating the Shakur killing and wrote a book about it, said he would not be surprised by Davis’s indictment and arrest.

“It’s so long overdue,” Kading told The Associated Press during a recent interview. “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 he interviewed Davis in 2008 and 2009, during Los Angeles police investigations of the killings of Shakur in Las Vegas and the slaying of Biggie Smalls.

Kading said also that he talked with a Las Vegas police detective about the case, including after the SWAT raid in July at the home in Henderson.

The former Los Angeles police detective said he believed the investigation gained new momentum in recent years following Davis’s public descriptions of his role in the killing, including his 2019 tell-all memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”

“It’s those events that have given Las Vegas the ammunition and the leverage to move forward,” Kading said. “Prior to Keefe D’s public declarations, the cases were unprosecutable as they stood.”

“He put himself squarely in the middle of the conspiracy,” Kading said of Davis and the Shakur slaying. “He 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 (Knight).”

Kading noted that Davis is the last living person among the four people who were in the vehicle from which shots were fired at Shakur and rapper Marion “Suge” Knight. Others were Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Terrence “Bubble Up” Brown and DeAndre “Freaky” Smith.

“It’s a concerted effort of conspirators,” Kading said, adding that he believed that because the killing was premeditated Davis could face a first-degree murder charge.

“All the other direct conspirators or participants are all dead,” Kading said. “Keefe D is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac.”

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News

Trump threatens secondary tariffs on Russian oil if no deal on Ukraine

Published

15 minutes ago

March 30, 2025

Press Room

Trump threatens secondary tariffs on Russian oil if no deal on Ukraine

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Donald Trump said he was “pissed off” with Vladimir Putin for foot-dragging in talks over a ceasefire with Ukraine, as the US president threatened secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil if no deal is done.

Trump’s comments on Sunday revealed the frustration at the White House with the Russian president as negotiations over a settlement of the war in Ukraine continue on without a clear breakthrough.

The new threat to hit imports from countries that purchase Russian oil come as Trump prepares to impose tariffs on goods from many of America’s largest trading partners on Wednesday. The president has proclaimed the moment “liberation day”, but the plan has caused turmoil in markets and anxiety among businesses and governments worldwide.

Trump’s outburst at Moscow is a shift in tone for the US president, who for weeks blamed Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, for being reluctant to strike a deal.

The US president chided Putin for attacking Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as Kyiv’s leader.

“If we’re in the midst of a negotiation, you could say that I was very angry, pissed off . . . when Putin started getting into Zelenskyy’s credibility,” Trump told NBC News. “That’s not going in the right location, you understand?”

While Ukraine has agreed to American demands for a full 30-day ceasefire, Russia has rebuffed the plan and conceded only to a truce regarding energy infrastructure targets and maritime operations in the Black Sea — and only if the west first lifts sanctions on some agricultural goods.

Zelenskyy has accused Russia of breaking the energy ceasefire at least twice since it was agreed. “Russia must be forced into peace — only pressure will work,” he said this weekend.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb, right. with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday © Finnish Presidential Office/Instagram/Reuters

Finland’s president Alexander Stubb, who spent seven hours with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday including a round of golf, told the Financial Times the US president was “running out of patience” with Putin over the ceasefire.

“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” said Stubb on a visit to London where he will on Monday debrief British prime minister Keir Starmer on his discussions with Trump.

Stubb said he had proposed setting a deadline of April 20 — which marks three months since Trump returned to the White House — to accept a 30-day unconditional truce on land, sea and in the air. Both western and eastern Christian churches will celebrate Easter on April 20 this year, a rare calendar alignment.

“The Russians are stalling, they’re coming up with new conditions,” Stubb said. “Let’s call Putin’s bluff for what it is. Russia at this stage does not want peace. So we need to force peace on Russia.”

Trump had previously threatened Russia with new tariffs and sanctions if it resisted an agreement, but expanding the trade bluster to buyers of Russian oil in other countries will add more pressure on Putin.

“If a deal isn’t made, and if I think it was Russia’s fault, I’m going to put secondary sanctions on Russia,” Trump told NBC.

Trump did not offer a clear explanation of what the plan would involve. He said “anybody buying oil from Russia will not be able to sell their product, any product, not just oil, into the United States”, but also said there would be a “25 to 50-point tariff on all oil”.

The US president added that he would slap “secondary tariffs” on Iran if they failed to make a deal on its nuclear programme, as he renewed his threat of “bombing” Tehran if they did not strike an agreement.

News

Iran rejects direct nuke talks as Trump threatens 'bombing' – DW – 03/30/2025

Published

47 minutes ago

March 30, 2025

Press Room

Iran rejects direct nuke talks as Trump threatens 'bombing' – DW – 03/30/2025

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday rebuked the idea of direct negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration over its nuclear program.

Pezeshkian: US must ‘build trust’ after earlier breached promises

“We responded to the US president’s letter via Oman and rejected the option of direct talks, but we are open to indirect negotiations,” Pezeshkian said during a sitdown with his cabinet broadcast on Iranian TV.

“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian said. “They must prove that they can build trust.”

During Trump’s first term in 2018, he pulled the US out of a nuclear agreement with Iran known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran and Russia look to forge stronger ties against West

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That deal provided sanctions relief for Iran, with the Iranian government in exchange curbing its nuclear program and allowing inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to periodically view its enrichment sites. France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the EU are some of the other parties signed onto the JCPOA.

Trump vows ‘bombing’ if no new Iran nuclear deal

Trump sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei earlier this month, urging Iran to reach a new nuclear deal with the US in his second term in the White House.

In an interview with US broadcaster NBC News, Trump made new threats towards Iran if there is no new nuclear agreement with the US.

“If they don’t make a deal,” Trump told the outlet on Saturday evening, referring to Iran. “There will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

Trump claimed that representatives from the US and Iran are “talking” on the matter.

Trump orders strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen

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The Trump administration has a “maximum pressure” approach towards Iran, which aims to both economically and politically isolate Tehran.

The Trump administration has also vowed to crack down on so-called Iranian proxies in the Middle East region, with the US currently attacking the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Edited by: Roshni Majumdar

News

‘No Cake, No Entry’: More Than 1,000 Picnic to Celebrate the Love of Cake

Published

10 hours ago

March 30, 2025

Press Room

‘No Cake, No Entry’: More Than 1,000 Picnic to Celebrate the Love of Cake

More than a thousand people gathered for a picnic on Saturday around tables draped with white tablecloths and spread over the lawn of the Legion of Honor art museum in San Francisco.

There was just one rule: “No cake, no entry.”

Attendees — including pastry chefs, home bakers and people with store-bought cakes — walked, drove and flew to bring elaborate cake creations to Cake Picnic, a touring festival where you can have your cake and eat it, too.

“It was harder to get than a Taylor Swift concert ticket,” said Elisa Sunga, Cake Picnic’s organizer, noting that the $15 tickets sold out in less than a minute.

This Cake Picnic turned out to be the biggest since it started nearly a year ago. Ms. Sunga described the intense interest in the festival as both “exciting” and “terrifying.”

A spectacular variety of cakes adorned the tables, including: a light lemon cake with passion fruit filling, a tower made out of smaller spongecakes, Jell-O cake, pink champagne cake, a kid-baked dinosaur pyramid cake, and plenty of desserts with flowery ornaments.

In the first hour, picnickers placed their cakes on stands and crammed them onto the tables. Then, after the arranging was complete, came that fleeting and glorious moment: The crowd gawked and took photos of the 1,387 cakes, both sweet and savory, in their pristine, unsliced form.

After the photos were taken, the ensuing buffet was an act of controlled chaos.

Smaller groups went up for cakewalks. Each person was given a pastry box and instructed to collect slices at will. Once everyone had a turn, the tables were opened for ravenous seconds, thirds and fourths, until no crumbs were left behind.

In April 2024, Ms. Sunga, a 34-year-old home baker, hoped to gather about a dozen people in Potrero del Sol Park in San Francisco to sit in a circle and eat cakes that they had baked and brought.

“It started primarily because I wanted to eat a lot of cake,” Ms. Sunga said. “I love cake.”

She posted the gathering on the invitation app Partiful, and it took off. Hundreds of people responded.

After the first event in April 2024, she took the cake show on the road, first to Los Angeles, then to New York and then back to San Francisco in November — “places with cake communities,” she said. At the last picnic, 613 cakes were on display.

“It’s not my full-time job, but I would love to travel full time for cake,” said Ms. Sunga, who works at Google. “It’s taken on a life of its own.”

Ms. Sunga, who brought two red velvet cakes of her own, said chefs from well-known bakeries, such as Tartine and SusieCakes, attended.

The Legion of Honor, the picnic venue, opened a special exhibit last week, “Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art,” celebrating Mr. Thiebaud, who died in 2021 and is most famous for his decadent paintings of cakes and confections.

The Cake Picnic aimed to turn his dessert still lifes into a “living tribute,” according to the museum’s website.

Joyce Lim, 32, who lives in San Francisco, called herself a Cake Picnic “groupie.” She said that she has baked for every Cake Picnic so far and will attend future picnics set for London and New York. (A two-day April picnic in Carlsbad, Calif., is sold out.)

Ms. Lim, an architect, said she has embraced cake baking for the picnics after at first being intimidated by it. On Saturday, she brought a scallion-pancake focaccia cake with chili-crisp cream cheese frosting and crème fraîche.

“I enjoy procrasti-baking, basically baking instead of handling my other life responsibilities,” Ms. Lim said.

She said she has been impressed by the creativity and diversity of cakes that people bring. Her cake might just top her previous elaborate entries: a kabocha cake layered with ginger-poached pears and miso-caramel cream cheese frosting, and a smörgåstårta, a Swedish cake with rye layers, hard-boiled eggs and caper filling.

Brenna Fallon, one of dozens of volunteers at the picnic, said that the brief period after the cakes are laid out and before the buffet begins is an “‘Alice in Wonderland’ moment.”

“Everybody is just gleefully going through the aisles,” said Ms. Fallon, 34, who is from Walnut Creek, Calif. “People are plotting — which cakes do they want to make a beeline for when they get in?”

Ms. Fallon, an amateur baker who brought an Earl Grey chocolate cake with a salty buttercream, said that a feeling of celebration was in the air.

“It’s a slice of life,” she said. “It feels like a big picnic with a bunch of friends you just don’t know yet.”