Police in Las Vegas arrest man over the shooting of rapper in 1996

US Police have arrested a man over the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996.

The hip-hop legend was shot four times was in a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip 27 years ago and his killer has still not been brought to justice.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested early this morning (29 September) by police in Las Vegas, Nevada and what he has been charged is set to be announced later today.

Davis has previously admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was in a Cadillac in which shots were fired at Tupac.

The arrest comes after police raided Davis’s wife’s Las Vegas home on 17 July.

At the time, police documents said officers were looking for items “concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur” and seized multiple computers, a mobile phone and hard drive.

Officers also seized a Vibe magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-calibre bullets, two tubs containing photographs and a copy of Davis’ memoir.

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 when he was facing life in prison on drug charges.

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

Davis describes 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 7 September 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 being diagnosed with cancer, Davis claimed in an in inside the Cadillac during the attack and alleged his nephew, Orlando Anderson 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 Mr Anderson, Shakur and others.

Mr Anderson, who denied any involvement in Shakur’s death, was killed in a shooting in Compton, California in 2020.

Shakur’s death came as his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me, remained on the charts, with some five 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.

At the time of the shooting, Shakur was feuding with his musical rival Biggie Smalls, also known as the Notorious B.I.G., who was killed in a shooting in March 1997.

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,” Mr 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.”

Mr Kading said he interviewed Davis in 2008 and 2009 during Los Angeles police investigations of the killings of Shakur in Las Vegas and the death of Biggie Smalls.