The world is closer to discovering who committed this horrible crime than ever before! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re discussing the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur and the 27-year journey to an arrest in the notorious case.
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00:00 27 years the family of Tupac Shakur has been waiting for justice.
00:04 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're discussing the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur and the
00:09 27 year journey to an arrest in the notorious case.
00:12 Here is video showing Dwayne "Keefie D" Davis in that courtroom at 830 this morning.
00:19 Tupac against the world.
00:21 In the 1960s, homicides in the US had a clearance rate of over 90%.
00:26 By the early 1980s, the clearance rate fell to 70%.
00:30 In 2020, it was reported that the police solved less than 50% of homicide cases.
00:36 It has never been this bad.
00:38 During the last seven months of 2020, most murders went unsolved, and that's never happened
00:44 before in America.
00:45 Despite this low, 2020 still saw the most homicide cases cleared by the police since
00:50 1997, one year after Tupac's murder.
00:54 In the history of unsolved crimes, Tupac's death seemed destined to loom over US law
00:59 enforcement forever.
01:01 So we've known that the situation, the investigation has picked up over a number of months, and
01:05 now today this arrest takes place.
01:08 We're obviously going to want to know a lot more from police, but this is definitely a
01:11 major breakthrough as they try to solve this 27 year old mystery.
01:16 Many were shocked when the 25 year old artist's life was tragically cut short in September
01:20 of 1996.
01:22 For those who had been following Tupac closely though, the writing was on the wall that his
01:26 days were numbered.
01:28 One of the earliest omens came on November 30th, 1994.
01:32 The night he was shot in the lobby of Quad Studios on November 30th, 1994, a hotspot
01:39 for rap artists at the time, that's Sean "Diddy" Combs outside as police arrived on scene.
01:45 He was shot numerous times.
01:47 At the invitation of James "Jimmy" Henchman Rosemond, Tupac arrived at New York's Quad
01:52 Studios where three men attempted to rob him in the lobby.
01:56 Resisting, Tupac was shot five times.
01:58 Tupac was in the lobby of the building.
02:01 He was waiting to go upstairs when those three gunmen entered.
02:04 They demanded jewelry and cash.
02:06 Tupac initially resisted, then he was shot five times.
02:10 And those gunmen made off with about $40,000 worth of jewelry.
02:14 A few others accompanied Tupac, including fellow rapper Stretch, who died in a drive-by
02:18 shooting exactly one year later.
02:21 Tupac survived this brush with death, believing that Rosemond set him up.
02:25 He also accused Sean Combs and the notorious B.I.G., who subsequently recorded the song
02:31 "Who Shot Ya?"
02:38 In 2012, while serving a life sentence for other crimes, Dexter Isaac confessed that
02:42 Rosemond hired him to confront Tupac.
02:45 Although he might have seemed invincible after this, Tupac grappled with his mortality in
02:50 the song "If I Die Tonight," which was released in 1995.
02:59 Rosemond has been serving life since 2015 with conspiracy to commit murder among his
03:04 charges.
03:17 While he wasn't charged with Tupac's shooting, Rosemond isn't the only one who reportedly
03:22 targeted him.
03:23 In July 1996, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson and his fellow Southside Crips tried robbing
03:29 Mob Piru member Trayvon "Tray" Lane in California.
03:46 Two months later, Lane was in Las Vegas with Tupac and Mob Piru co-founder Marion "Sug"
03:51 Knight.
03:52 Knight also co-founded Death Row Records, which Tupac joined a year earlier.
03:57 During the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson match, Lane encountered Anderson in the MGM Grand
04:02 Lobby.
04:03 Seeking retribution, Tupac beat up Anderson with Knight's entourage joining.
04:22 Later that night, Tupac and Knight started driving to Club 662 where a charity concert
04:27 to distance children from violence was being held.
04:30 They never arrived.
04:33 On September 7, 1996, at 11.15pm, Tupac and Knight's BMW came to a traffic light where
04:39 they were ambushed by a shooter in a white Cadillac sedan.
04:42 Shortly after 11pm, Kading says Anderson and his crew exacted their revenge.
05:01 Tupac's bodyguard, Frank Alexander, wasn't present since he was told to drive the car
05:05 of Kodada Jones, Shakur's girlfriend who was in their hotel room at the time.
05:10 Situated in the passenger seat, Tupac was shot five times, with one bullet hitting his
05:14 right lung.
05:25 Although a bullet fragment struck Knight's head, he managed to drive away from the site
05:29 with a flat tire.
05:30 They encountered the Vegas Bike Patrol, who had already pulled them over once shortly
05:34 before the shooting.
05:36 Tupac and Knight were subsequently taken to the University Medical Center of Southern
05:40 Nevada.
05:49 Six days later, on September 13, Tupac was pronounced dead at 4.03pm due to internal
05:54 bleeding.
06:05 In 2014, Chris Carroll of the LVMPD claimed that he asked Tupac who shot him shortly before
06:12 his death.
06:17 Tupac supposedly responded with an obscenity, although others present have denied hearing
06:21 this.
06:22 In any case, few witnesses were willing to talk with the police.
06:26 Knight declared that even if he did know who shot Tupac, he wouldn't tell the cops.
06:31 Rapper Yaki Qaddafi, who had been in the car behind Tupac's, was hesitant to speak with
06:35 the authorities.
06:36 Qaddafi was shot dead just two months later.
06:50 While such distrust would prolong the case, the police were also criticized for not trying
06:55 harder to follow up with Qaddafi and other potential witnesses.
06:58 A year after Tupac's death, Sergeant Kevin Manning of the LVMPD cited "a lack of witnesses
07:04 and evidence" in the case, saying that it "may never be solved."
07:09 And although no one has been prosecuted, he believes street justice was served.
07:14 However, Bryan Robinson of Court TV Online questioned if there was really a lack of witnesses
07:19 "or a lack of investigation."
07:22 Many felt that the Vegas police were overlooking the brawl with Orlando Anderson.
07:26 He was captured on security video walking through the MGM lobby with his entourage.
07:31 Suddenly, they all start attacking a man.
07:34 Later identified as Orlando Anderson.
07:37 While the Vegas police quickly discounted Anderson as a suspect, the LAPD didn't.
07:42 Neither did Afeni Shakur, Tupac's mother, who took out a wrongful death suit against
07:47 Anderson who was pursuing legal action against Knight at the same time.
07:51 Ironically, a settlement was reached only a few hours before Anderson was killed in
07:56 an unrelated car wash shootout on May 29, 1998.
08:00 Anderson was one of the main suspects in the killing before he died in a gang shootout
08:04 in 1998.
08:05 People also couldn't help but draw parallels to the notorious B.I.G., who died six months
08:10 after Tupac.
08:11 "The rapper known as Biggie Smalls was shot several times as he sat in his Chevy Suburban
08:15 early this morning outside the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
08:19 Smalls had been attending a party honoring winners of the Soul Train Music Awards, in
08:23 which he made an appearance Friday night."
08:25 In a 2002 LA Times article entitled "Who Killed Tupac Shakur?"
08:29 writer Chuck Phillips claimed there was evidence that Biggie supplied the murder weapon and
08:33 offered $1 million to carry out the deed, only paying $50,000.
08:38 Like Anderson, Biggie denied any involvement.
08:41 The LVMPD reopened the case the same year that Phillips' article was published.
08:46 A year later, the Oscar-nominated documentary Tupac Resurrection came out.
08:50 "My death.
08:51 It's a tragedy, like Shakespeare, I guess.
08:54 But I have no bad feelings.
08:55 I have love for everybody."
08:56 Despite this renewed interest, the case would lose traction until 2011, when retired LAPD
09:02 detective Greg Kading self-published a book entitled Murder Rap, the untold story of the
09:07 Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur murder investigations.
09:10 "Murder Rap is a book Kading wrote about the untold story of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur
09:16 murder investigations.
09:18 Kading says he's confident the LAPD solved both cases."
09:22 All eyes on Dwayne Davis.
09:24 Kading claimed that Sean Combs hired Anderson's uncle, Dwayne Keith "Keefy D" Davis, to
09:29 assassinate Tupac at night.
09:30 "Keefy D, the individual who we're speaking of now, his name has always been associated
09:35 with the case because his nephew, Orlando Anderson, always has been the primary suspect."
09:43 Combs called these allegations, quote, "pure fiction."
09:46 Likewise, the killing of Tupac Shakur author Kathy Scott doubts that Biggie commissioned
09:51 the murder.
09:52 However, the book shined a spotlight on Davis, who, like his nephew, is affiliated with the
09:57 Crips.
09:58 Seven years later, Kading's book was adapted into a USA Network miniseries entitled Unsolved.
10:06 Two months after the series finale, Davis claimed that he was in the Cadillac the night
10:11 Tupac died.
10:12 Davis added that the driver was Terrence Brown, while DeAndre "Dray" Smith and Anderson were
10:17 in the backseat.
10:18 Though Davis refused to name the shooter at one point, he claimed it was Anderson in a
10:23 police tape.
10:24 "Investigators say Davis confessed to his involvement in the case, giving full details
10:29 of how he and co-conspirators killed the late rapper.
10:33 But that interview was in exchange for information."
10:36 Like Anderson, Smith and Brown are both deceased.
10:39 According to Kading, Davis first came forward in 2009.
10:42 "When we spoke with him in 2009 and he divulged all the details of what led up to the murder,
10:48 what happened during the murder and then what happened after the murder, they were really
10:53 consistent with both known and unknown facts."
10:57 Davis had immunity then, but this didn't extend to what he said outside of the police interview.
11:02 Davis says he went public due to a 2014 colon cancer diagnosis, although he's currently
11:08 in remission.
11:09 In addition to confessing, Davis co-authored his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend, exploring
11:15 the murders of Tupac and Biggie.
11:17 This is the book he wrote about what happened.
11:20 Compton Street Legend.
11:21 Davis described himself as a "on-ground, on-site commander," asserting that he "ordered the
11:27 death of Tupac."
11:29 Yet it would take another four years for Vegas police to raid the home of Davis' wife, searching
11:34 for evidence "concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur."
11:37 On September 29, 2023, Davis was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
11:43 Investigators say it's unlikely Davis would have ever been arrested if he hadn't opened
11:48 his mouth.
11:49 Despite Davis' previous claim that Anderson was the shooter, a witness told a grand jury
11:54 that it was actually DeAndre Smith.
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12:13 Davis may be the only living person connected to Tupac's murder.
12:17 Davis is one of the last witnesses to the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur.
12:21 Granted, Davis previously claimed that Sean Combs offered him $1 million to execute Tupac,
12:27 but there's virtually no evidence backing this up.
12:30 However, the authorities seem to have a confident case against Davis, who is being held without
12:35 bail.
12:36 Suge Knight, who is currently incarcerated, isn't convinced that the cops have the right
12:40 man.
12:41 Either way, Knight quote, "1,000% won't be testifying."
12:49 After 27 years, this infamous case may finally see a form of closure.
12:54 Some might find it shocking that it's taken this long for such a high-profile case to
12:58 see an arrest.
12:59 "Why now?
13:00 Why is there an arrest now?
13:03 It's because there's corroboration.
13:05 There's one thing for the investigators to suspect who did it, but now they were able
13:10 to get some corroboration."
13:12 With unsolved homicides now at a record high, though, Tupac's murder reflects a larger
13:17 issue in a society plagued with violence.
13:20 Have you been following the Tupac case?
13:22 Share your thoughts in the comments.
13:23 "It's a type of victory, you know?
13:27 It's bittersweet still.
13:30 Stay tuned."
13:31 Did you enjoy this video?
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13:38 [Music]