The Murder of Tupac Shakur
A drive-by on the Strip, a hip-hop icon dead six days later, and 27 years of silence.
On the night of September 7, 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was shot four times while riding in a black BMW driven by Death Row Records boss Suge Knight. He died six days later. The case remained officially unsolved for 27 years until Duane 'Keefe D' Davis was indicted in September 2023.
The Mike Tyson–Bruce Seldon fight had just ended at the MGM Grand. Tupac and his entourage were leaving when they encountered Orlando Anderson — a member of the South Side Compton Crips — in the lobby. Tupac punched him. The fight was caught on security video.
Hours later, at 11:15 PM at a red light on Flamingo Road, a white Cadillac pulled alongside Suge Knight's BMW. A gunman in the back seat opened fire. Four rounds struck Tupac. He was rushed to the University Medical Center. He died on September 13.
For decades, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police were unable — or unwilling — to close the case. Witnesses refused to speak. Multiple suspects died in unrelated violence within a few years, including Orlando Anderson himself in 1998.
Then, in 2018, Keefe D — Anderson's uncle — began publicly boasting about being in the Cadillac that night, on podcasts and in a memoir. In July 2023, LVMPD raided his home. In September 2023, a grand jury indicted him for orchestrating the murder. Trial is scheduled for 2025.
- Sep 7, 1996, 8:45 PMMGM Grand lobby altercation with Orlando Anderson.
- Sep 7, 1996, 11:15 PMDrive-by shooting at Flamingo Road & Koval Lane.
- Sep 13, 1996Tupac Shakur pronounced dead at UMC hospital.
- May 29, 1998Orlando Anderson killed in an unrelated Compton shooting.
- Jul 17, 2023LVMPD raids Keefe D's Henderson home.
- Sep 29, 2023Duane 'Keefe D' Davis indicted for murder.
- EX-01MGM Grand lobby surveillance video of the Anderson altercation.
- EX-02Ballistics from the four .40-caliber rounds recovered from the BMW.
- EX-03Keefe D's own recorded confessions on podcasts and in his book Compton Street Legend.
- EX-042023 search warrant recovery from Davis's Henderson home.
"Something in this file doesn't sit right. Ask the detective — he's read it a hundred times."