LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Newly released grand jury transcripts reveal more about Las Vegas Metro police’s investigation into the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur that led to Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ arrest last week.
Police arrested Davis on Friday, Sept. 29, near his Henderson home. The day before, a grand jury indicted the 60-year-old on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement. Prosecutors allege Davis ordered the shooting.
The shooting on Sept. 7, 1996, at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a block off the Las Vegas Strip, followed a fight earlier in the night. In the hours before the murder, Shakur’s group reportedly attacked Orlando Anderson, a member of a rival gang and Davis’ nephew. Davis, Anderson and two other men were in the shooter’s car, Davis has publicly claimed, and prosecutors said.
Shakur died six days later from his injuries.
Davis was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, which pulled up side-by-side to Tupac’s before the shooting at the intersection, police and prosecutors said. Marion “Suge” Knight, the then-head of Death Row Records, was driving the car with Shakur in the passenger seat. Knight was injured in the shooting.
Transcripts released late Thursday include testimony from retired Metro homicide detective Clifford Mogg, who took over the case in 2018. During a press conference last week, Sheriff Kevin McMahill praised Mogg for his efforts.
The transcripts also include large segments from Davis’ book and video clips from TV and online interviews.
“Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat,” Davis writes in the book. “It was the first and only time in my life that I could relate to the police command, ‘Keep your hands where I can see them.’ Instead, Pac pulled out a strap, and that’s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back.”
Despite Davis’ claims that Shakur was reaching for a gun before the shooting, Mogg said there was no evidence Shakur or Knight had a weapon.
“There’s a couple different versions that he gives depending on when and where and with whom his interview is conducted,” Mogg told the grand jury.
As part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into the death of The Notorious B.I.G., officials offered Davis a proffer, which Davis believed gave him immunity in the Las Vegas case.
“He wasn’t going to just come in and tell the truth unless we compelled him to do that,” former LAPD detective Greg Kading told the 8 News Now Investigators on Monday. “We had to give them a reason to tell the truth. Get some leverage on him so to speak.”
That leverage did not include protection from any public statements, Kading said. Those statements, made in TV documentaries and in his own writings, led to his arrest last week.
“And that proffer was conducted by LAPD and law enforcement in California; Metro had nothing to do with that particular proffer that ‘Keffe D’ gave?” Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo asked Mogg during a grand jury hearing.
“We were not aware of that,” Mogg said.
“But Metro, the jurisdiction that has authority over the investigation, never received whatever that information is, nor as far as you know nobody has ever, from Las Vegas, ever provided Mr. Davis any sort of immunity from prosecution; correct?” DiGiacomo asked Mogg.
“They have not,” the retired detective said. Mogg retired this summer, shortly after the raid at Davis’ Henderson home. The 8 News Now Investigators first reported the news of the raid.
“So, we took his cell phone that he had with him at the time the warrant was executed because I want to review the download from that phone to see if there’s any communications between him and anyone else associated with this investigation,” Mogg said. “When I say that, I mean people who he has conducted YouTube interviews with, documentation as to his involvement in the ‘Death Row Chronicles’ documentary, and then anything that would have been related to his involvement in and the publication of his book.”
Police also seized other electronics and two “giant bins of photographs,” Mogg said.
“I was looking for any documentation, any photographs that might connect him to the murder of Tupac Shakur or any of the YouTube videos, the documentaries, the book and during the search of those bins I located a, like a small photo album that was cloth bound and inside that photo album were numerous clippings of the murder of Tupac Shakur dating back to 1996 and in that time frame, and also his book, recovered a copy of that, a magazine talking about the murder of Tupac Shakur, and I believe I also recovered a copy of Greg Kading’s book ‘Murder Rap,’” Mogg said.
Mogg said he briefly spoke to Davis during the raid.
“So, he never told me personally why he was doing so many interviews,” Mogg said. “The only reason that I can see now that he is doing all of these interviews is monetary gain and everyone else that was involved in the murder of Tupac Shakur is deceased.”
Davis was expected to appear in court on Oct. 19 as he worked to secure a local attorney.
There is no statute of limitations for when prosecutors can file murder charges in Nevada. The charge can apply to those who aid or abet in a murder, not just the person accused of pulling the trigger, prosecutors said.
