Tupac suspect Keefe D ‘lied to cops’ about Diddy offering him $1m to kill rapper & insists he’s ‘no snitch,’ lawyer says
TUPAC Shakur murder suspect Keefe D lied to police about Sean “Diddy” Combs offering $1 million for the hit and will not help federal authorities with the case, his lawyer has now claimed.
Keefe D will not speak with New York Southern District investigators, who are engaged in an enormous US-wide probe of potentially illegal activities of Combs.
Incredibly, Keefe previously publicly boasted in a police interview and media chats that Combs offered him $1 million to exterminate Tupac and of his efforts to collect the bounty.
However, the self-confessed ”Godfather Of Compton” has now assured family and friends that he will not discuss any Combs matters with authorities.
NYC investigators have been collaborating with the Clark County District Attorney’s office in Nevada – where Keefe is in custody – over any evidence linking Combs to Tupac’s murder.
Keefe, directly and through his lawyer Carl Arnold, has now declared he will not assist in that aspect of the investigation.
Arnold confirmed to The U.S. Sun that Keefe is “not at all” speaking with authorities.
And Arnold added of his own client’s past allegations that Combs tabled the life-changing sum for the murder of his 1990s record label rival: “No one has ever been able to prove that he wanted Tupac killed and was willing to pay for it.”
When asked about Keefe’s claim during a 2008 taped police interview that Combs, who partied with him, outlined the $1 million kill offer, Arnold hit back: “Keefe lied.”
Hip-hop mogul Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking by force, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Arnold asserted that Combs, too, had no involvement in Tupac’s 1996 murder or information about his own client.
Arnold reacted: “[He] is going to prison for life. If he has that information I am sure he would’ve given it up now to save his skin.”
A family friend of Keefe also outlined that he is not cooperating with any NYC probe on Combs.
They told The U.S Sun: “Keefe ain’t saying s*** to any of the agents about Diddy.
“They have nothing to offer him, and he still maintains he ain’t no snitch.”
Arnold maintains that his client will walk free after the March trial insisting that prosecutors still “have no proof” that Keefe was in Las Vegas on the night of Tupac’s death.
Arnold says that he hopes Keefe will be granted bail if “his family can get the funds together … as yet, they haven’t managed that.”
Why it’s taken so long for justice in the Tupac Shakur case
By The Sun’s Senior Reporter Emma Parry, who has been reporting on the Tupac murder for the past 10 years
TUPAC fans have been waiting for justice for the iconic rapper for almost 28 years.
Finally in September 2023 there appeared to be progress with the arrest of Duane “Keefe D” Davis – a former Southside Crip gangster from Compton, LA – who had been telling the world for years that he and his fellow “gang soldiers” were responsible for the hit.
I’ve been reporting on the case for several years and it always appeared pretty cut and dry…Keefe had spent the past decade gaining notoriety by boasting about his alleged involvement in the shooting – now he was finally getting what he deserves. But despite Keefe running his mouth for years, I now believe a guilty verdict in November’s trial is far from guaranteed.
Keefe describes in great detail in his memoir Compton Street Legend what went down the night Pac was shot, extracts from which The U.S. Sun has published.
He claimed that he was offered a million dollars by rapper Diddy to “handle” Tupac and Suge Knight and when he and his Crip gangsters came across the pair driving near the Strip in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, Keefe alleged he passed the gun to his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson who took the shot. Keefe said if Pac had been on his side: “I would have blast”.
Keefe repeated the claims multiple times over the years, on YouTube channels, documentaries, and even in taped confessions to police, when he believed he could not be prosecuted. In one confession to the LAPD, Keefe appeared completely remorseless telling detectives: “We didn’t give a f**k…The ambulance [for Tupac] was parked right here next to us. That s**t was as funny as a motherf**ker.”
The Sun has been publishing stories about Keefe’s self confessed involvement in the crime since 2018.
I sent many links to his confessions to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, asking them why this man had not been arrested yet. They would thank me for the info but say that they could not comment because the case was still active. From the outside, it looked like no action was being taken at all.
We spoke to former detectives involved in the case and documentary makers who all felt utterly frustrated at the lack of progress in the case. We even published a plea from former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who had probed the murders, urging Las Vegas cops to arrest Keefe, back in 2020.
For years, the case appeared to have been forgotten and ignored, to be left forever unsolved.
But finally, in the summer of 2023, we got word from our sources that there had been a huge development in the case. A secret grand jury was due to be held on whether or not Keefe should be indicted. I was dubious at first but around the same time a house in Henderson, Nevada, linked to Keefe, was raided in July as part of the Tupac investigation.
Things were heating up.
Later that summer, behind closed doors, jurors listened to hours of testimony from former cops, detectives, and coroners involved in the Tupac case and gangsters and associates of Keefe’s and Pac’s from back in the day. They were shown graphic photos of Tupac’s bullet-ridden body. After days of evidence, they decided there was enough evidence to prosecute Keefe.
Once the secret documents were released I poured over the transcripts. While interesting, many of the witnesses were telling stories they’d heard second-hand. None of the prosecution witnesses had a clear look at who shot Pac. One witness Devonta Lee claimed another gangster called Big Dre took the shot – not Orlando. Maybe things weren’t as clear-cut as I first thought.
Keefe was then arrested on September 30, 2023 at his home. Bodycam footage we obtained from the scene showed Keefe bragging to cops even as he was handcuffed in the back of a police car – telling officers he was involved in the “biggest case in Las Vegas history”.
Following Keefe’s multiple appearances in court, he seems to have lost much of that bravado and now cuts a sad, lonely figure.
Suffering from various health problems as a result of cancer, he’s struggling to cope with the brutalities of jail life and can’t get together enough money to afford his bail. He feels some of his old Southside Crip associates – men he handed wads of cash to in his glory days, have just abandoned him.
Keefe is now desperate to get out of jail, and his defense stems is leaning on his claim that he completely made up his involvement in the Tupac murder for fame and money. He saw other people cashing in on the murder so he thought he would too. He reckons his confessions to police were all lies – he made it up because he was under a plea deal and thought it would help him beat his other charges.
And, according to his lawyer Carl Arnold, he wasn’t even in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting. Arnold remains convinced he will see his client walk free and their secret weapon could be former Death Row Records boss Suge.
As the only other person still alive from either car, Suge, currently in prison for a fatal hit and run, would be a key witness. Suge is the only person still alive who knows what went down – he saw the shooter. While he’s said he won’t testify at the November trial, Suge has claimed in a TMZ interview from prison that Orlando was not the shooter, which again throws into doubt Keefe’s version of events.
Keefe and his lawyer are hoping they might be able to change his mind and persuade him to testify for the defense. And Suge holds the power to blow the prosecution’s case apart.
And if Keefe walks free, will there ever be justice for Pac?
The U.S. Sun revealed first how Vegas law enforcement is liaising with investigators in the Combs case.
Combs, 54, is in protective custody, accused of running a criminal enterprise from at least 2008 that relied on drugs and violence to force women to “fulfill his sexual desires.”
Publicly, Combs’ attorney insists his client is “innocent” of all wrongdoing in that probe, which is being kept under wraps.
Keefe outlined in TV shows, media interviews, and even his memoir how he was an ally of Combs during the height of the East/ West Coast Rap Wars in the 1990s.
He acted as security for Combs in shows and California visits with other Compton Crips.
During a meeting at the Hollywood eatery Greenblatt’s Deli, Keefe previously alleged that Combs told him he wanted Tupac and Suge Knight eliminated, saying: “Man, I want to get rid of those dudes – man.”
“We wanted a million,” stated Keefe, adding that “we will wipe their a** out quick, you know – it is nothing.”
Keefe made his confession to LAPD in 2008 in a recorded interview, which has been admitted into evidence for the murder trial
On tape, when asked by an officer “who brought up the amount of one million dollars,” Keefe replied, “sh** he did. It wasn’t me.”
Keefe repeated on the tape that Combs had several conversations with him to “kill both of them.”
It was unclear whether the Crips were planning to murder Tupac on September 7, 1996, but a caravan of them trekked to Vegas, knowing the artist had a high-profile gig.
Keefe alleges, in the police tape, that Combs was delighted with Tupac’s death
“He was happy,” Keefe recalled how he had tried to chase Combs for the alleged bounty without luck.
Keefe believed that this confessional tape would never be used as evidence against him because he had secured immunity by collaborating with the LAPD in December 2008.
Keefe is currently languishing in jail after failing to find the bail money to secure a home electrically monitored release.
Judge Carli Kierny set his bail at $750,000, but Keefe has not raised the sum and remains in protective custody at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas.
Keefe complained in his memoir and media interviews that Combs never came through on his alleged hit fee.
Arnold insisted to The U.S. Sun that Keefe simply lied repeatedly about being involved in the Tupac murder and Combs for “fame and fortune.”
Diddy's downfall
By The U.S. Sun's Senior Reporter Forrest McFarland, who has been reporting on Diddy's legal battles for years
BEFORE Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest in September, it was highly speculated that the rap star would find himself in custody after he was repeatedly hit with disturbing accusations – and had two of his mansions raided by the feds.
His mounting legal troubles finally came to a head on September 17, when he was charged with three federal counts, including sex trafficking, for allegedly forcing victims to take part in drug-fueled sex parties he called “Freak Offs.”
Hours before his arrest, The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed the feds investigating Combs were secretly liaising with Tupac Shakur murder prosecutors on gangland activities.
The development also came after Combs was named 77 times in documents submitted by prosecutors in the Tupac murder case.
Aside from the Tupac probe, Combs was already facing a slew of lawsuits, including one he settled with his ex, Cassie Ventura, after she accused him of rape and abuse.
Disturbing hotel surveillance video from 2016 showed Combs chasing Cassie down and then punching, kicking, and beating her in a hallway.
Two months earlier, in March 2024, two of Combs’ mansions were raided by federal investigators, who seized three AR-15s, drugs, and 1,000 bottles of lube which were part of his “Freak Off” supplies.
In addition to his federal criminal charges, Combs also faces a handful of lawsuits with allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and sex trafficking dating back to the early 1990s.
Music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed one suit in February 2024, claiming Combs forced him to hire sex workers and participate in sex acts while he worked on his latest album.
Combs has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the federal sex trafficking charges against him, but his battle is far from over.
He faces life in prison if he’s convicted on all counts.