Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, the suspect in the murder of Tupac Shakur, has named his nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, as the man who fired the shots that killed the rapper. In a 2008 interview with detectives, Davis claimed he was in the car with Anderson at the time of the shooting in 1996. Anderson had been dead for a decade by the time Davis gave the interview.
According to Davis, the white Cadillac he was traveling in with Anderson and two other men pulled alongside a car carrying Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion ‘Suge’ Knight. Davis said he passed his gun back to Deandre ‘Big Dre’ Smith, but Smith didn’t want it. Anderson, who was also in the back seat, took the weapon and started firing, Davis claimed.
The interview was played for jurors, who watched the transcript of the audio recording roll on a screen. Some took notes, while Shakur’s family sat still, occasionally looking at the screen or looking down to the floor. The room was quiet as Davis described the shooting.
Prosecutors say the interview is essential evidence in the state’s case against the 63-year-old Davis. They told jurors in opening statements that they would lean heavily on Davis’ own admissions in interviews with police and on podcasts, as well as the 2019 memoir he co-authored, ‘Compton Street Legend.’ Davis has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer has called the prosecution’s narrative ‘fiction.’ The lawyer argued that Davis was ‘full of crap’ when he told stories of his involvement and that authorities knew it. The detectives had actually brought Davis in to talk about the 1997 shooting death of Shakur’s archrival, the Notorious B.I.G.
Davis had briefly been one of the suspects in that still unsolved killing, but he was later discounted. The detectives told Davis that their discussion was confidential, saying ‘nothing you say today can be used against you.’ Prosecutors say Davis did in fact ‘go out there and start talking’ a decade later when he told stories about the shooting in interviews and the memoir. They said that nullifies any agreement he had with law enforcement over this and other recorded conversations.
Prosecutors allege Shakur was killed to avenge Shakur’s entourage attacking Davis’ nephew Anderson a few hours earlier at the MGM Grand after a Mike Tyson fight. Tupac Shakur remains a cultural icon, and one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time. He died as his popularity was peaking and his film career as an actor was taking off.
His legend has only grown in the years since.
