Nearly two years after Duane “Keefe D” Davis was arrested after being indicted for the September 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, the 61-year-old is finally speaking out. Although he’s being charged for the murder of the hip-hop legend, he says that he played no part in his fatal shooting.
In a jailhouse interview with ABC News, Keefe D was finally able to defend himself and denies any involvement in the drive-by shooting of Shakur nearly 30 years ago.
“I’m innocent,” said Davis. “I ain’t kill nobody. Never killed nobody. They don’t have no evidence against me. Prove that I orchestrated this. You’re key witness orchestrated this. Their top witness is the lead suspect.”
Davis refers to Reggie Wright Jr., a former Los Angeles police officer who worked as a security guard for Suge Knight and other members of Death Row Records in the mid-1990s. Wright’s original testimony in court led to Davis’ indictment.
Davis later adds that he’s cooperated with authorities over the years: “I did everything they asked me to do. Get new friends. Stop selling drugs. I stopped all that. I’m supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight at one of my f***ing grandson’s football games, and basketball games. Enjoying life with my kids.”
One of the main things working against Davis is that he went on record in several interviews confessing to being involved in Shakur’s murder.
In 2008, he also allegedly confessed to the murder as a part of a “proffer agreement,” meaning that anything he told investigators at the time could not be used against him in court, according to ABC News.
Authorities referred to the 2019 book, “Compton Street Legend,” a memoir where Davis allegedly recounts the murders of both Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. Although he’s credited as a co-author, Davis said he just did it for the money.
“I’ve never read the book,” said Davis. “I just gave him [Yusuf Jah] details of my life. And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.”
Although prosecutors are confident that Davis will be convicted, the man himself says he has witnesses of his own that corroborate his whereabouts the night of shooting. He allegedly has “20 or 30 people” coming to the trial to say that he was in Los Angeles, not Las Vegas, the night of the shooting.
The murder trial is scheduled for February 2026.