Duane Keith Davis aka Keefe D, an American member of the California-based gang known as the South Side Compton Crips who is charged with first-degree murder in the 1996 murder of American rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur has made some shocking revelations about the late rapper’s death.
Keefe D, while in court in Las Vegas claimed that music entrepreneur, Sean Comb aka Diddy allegedly orchestrated the assassination, and that Diddy had asked him to carry out the act against Tupac and Suge Knight, offering a substantial sum of $1 million for the task.
Diddy’s representatives refrained from commenting on the allegations.
In the past, Diddy dismissed any involvement in Tupac’s death, labeling such claims as nonsense.
James McDonald, formerly known as Mob James, a figure from that era, has affirmed hearing rumors about Diddy and others at Death Row allegedly putting a bounty on Suge and Tupac’s heads.
James, once a security enforcer for Death Row Records, revealed that during the intense East Coast-West Coast rivalry between Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records, everyone had a price on their head.
He said, “Diddy was scared of Suge. New York wasn’t going to come down there and try to find Suge. That wouldn’t have never happened. So when … it happened with Tupac, our side had to feel like, ‘Okay, we can’t just let that one go’…..
“They was going back and forth tit for tat. So I believe that it got too big for Pac and Biggie because not one of them seen it coming. Not one of them thought it was going to come that way. And like I said before, Puffy was so scared of Suge, he had to put something, somewhere to get Suge out the way.”
James, now reformed and actively assisting younger individuals to exit the gang life, shared that many guys had bounties on their heads. Considering their background and the circumstances, they had to elevate their actions and adopt a similar approach. At that point, taking a life held no significance; beating someone didn’t matter. Nothing did. They simply did what they were supposed to do.
Keefe D informed detectives that Diddy contacted a gangster associate named Eric Von Zip shortly after Tupac’s shooting to inquire about their involvement.
Keefe D’s statements however to Los Angeles Police Department, LAPD can’t lead to prosecution due to a legal agreement in place.
According to a recording, Keefe D alleges that when Diddy learned their entourage was behind Tupac’s shooting, he was happy.
In a separate LAPD audio clip, Keefe D asserts that Diddy paid the hit fee to Zip, who allegedly kept the money for himself.
In his book Compton Street Legend, Keefe claims that Diddy, then known as Puffy or Puff Daddy, ordered the hit during a day out in New York over pastrami sandwiches and pink champagne.
Keefe said Diddy told him, “I need to speak to you big dawg,” and the pair went to the side to talk.
He wrote in the book “I’m able to smell and see fear. Puffy was full of fear”.
Keefe then alleges that Diddy said, “I have a couple of problems I need to be handled. Big CEO [Suge Knight] and Pac.”
The gangster says he replied, “That’s not a problem. We can make that happen.”
In the book Keefe explains Diddy had issues with TuPac after he released the diss track Hit Em Up, saying, “That song made Puffy mad.”
Tupac Shakur died on September 13, 1996, six days after a gunman in a white Cadillac shot him four times in the chest at a stoplight in Las Vegas.
Keefe was apprehended during an early Friday walk near his outskirts of Las Vegas residence, just hours before prosecutors revealed a Nevada grand jury’s indictment.
The self-described gangster faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
The grand jury also endorsed a sentencing enhancement for gang activity, potentially adding up to 20 extra years to the sentence upon conviction.
