Suspect In Tupac Shakur’s Murder Now Says He’s Innocent

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A year and a half after being arrested for the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur, the man being charged with the crime has proclaimed his innocence in a new interview from jail. Despite repeatedly associating himself with the night in question, he’s now attempting to distance himself from public statements he’s made. 

Duane “Keffe D” Davis was charged with Tupac’s murder in 2023, nearly 30 years after the rapper and actor was killed. He spoke to ABC News from jail this week as he awaits trial, giving his first public comments since the arrest. He says that previous incriminating statements he’s made were lies and that he wasn’t even in the same city at the time of the attack.

“I did not do it,” Davis said in an hour-long conversation with ABC. “[Prosecutors] don’t have nothing. And they know they don’t have nothing. They can’t even place me out here. They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keffe D, no nothing.”

Tupac’s death in 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, has been one of the most impactful moments in hip-hop’s history, and the murder has gone unsolved — despite countless documentaries and news stories being dedicated to the incident. Davis, a former member of the Crips gang, has been publicly associated with Shakur’s death for years before formally facing criminal charges, giving accounts of the incident to police, the press, and in a memoir called Compton Street Legend.

Davis was busted in a drug operation sting in 2008, as a task force consisting of both federal and Los Angeles officers was looking for information on the California murder of Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace in 1997. He reportedly offered information on his involvement in Tupac’s murder instead, under a “proffer agreement,” which was supposed to legally protect him from being prosecuted for what he shared. 

“I’m not even supposed to be in jail,” he told ABC. “A deal is a deal.”

But speaking publicly about the murder gave new life to the case, and according to former LAPD detective Greg Kading, jeopardized the protections afforded in the proffer agreement. In numerous public interviews and his book, while refusing to name the gunmen themselves, Davis places himself in the car with Tupac’s murderers.

In Davis’ interview with ABC, he claimed that he was actually hundreds of miles away in Los Angeles the night of the attack and said that “20 or 30 people (are) going to come” to court who will back up his story. He also says that his previous confessions to police were lies to protect others who were involved in the drug case.

“That’s the only way you’re walking free. It would’ve been selfish to let everybody go down because of me,” he said. As for his statements to the press: “They paid me to say that.” When asked about the book with his name on the cover, Davis says that he never read it himself and that his co-author used stories that Davis told him and took unapproved creative liberties. 

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Davis claims that the “lead suspect” in the case should be Reggie Wright Jr., a former Compton police officer who ran security for Death Row Records, Tupac’s former record label (Wright has denied those accusations in a previous interview). He adds that in the years since the murder he’s kept on the straight and narrow, only to be arrested for a crime he says he didn’t commit.

“I did everything they asked me to do. Get new friends. Stop selling drugs. I stopped all that,” he said. “I’m supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight at one of my fu**ing grandson’s football games and basketball games. Enjoying life with my kids.”

Opting to cash in on the fascination around Tupac’s death may have seemed like a good idea to Davis, especially if he believed there wouldn’t be any consequences for doing so after two decades. But going back on years of public and private statements is going to be an uphill battle. Still, only time will tell if prosecutors will land a conviction with the additional evidence and supporting accounts they claim they’ve obtained.

The trial is expected to begin in 11 months.

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