Multiple Items Seized After Tupac Shakur Murder Raid – Now What?

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Tupac Shakur

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Photo credit: Mary Salome / CC from 2.0

Police confiscated items during a raid on a Las Vegas-area home in connection with the shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur, whose murder remains unsolved after 27 years.

Las Vegas police confiscated items “related to the killing of Tupac Shakur” during a raid on a home linked to one of the few surviving witnesses to the crime, a man who investigators have identified, whose nephew was considered a suspect shortly after Tupac’s 1996 killing.

According to warrant documents, investigators searched the property for items related to the rapper’s murder by Duane “Keefe D” Davis receive from the press on Thursday. Davis, 60, is a self-proclaimed “gangster” and the uncle of Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, a known rival of Shakur. Anderson denied any involvement in Shakur’s death and died two years later in a shooting in Compton, California.

Police reported taking away five computers, multiple tablets, a hard drive, thumb drives, an iPhone, “documentary documents,” a Vibe magazine featuring Shakur, “alleged marijuana,” .40-caliber bullets, two “tubs of photos,” and a copy of Davis’ 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police confirmed a search warrant was issued Monday in the neighboring town of Henderson, Nevada. The agency has not confirmed whether investigators are expecting the first arrest in connection with the rapper’s murder nearly 27 years ago, nor have they publicly identified the two people found in the raid at the home — though property records show the home belongs to Paula Clemons, who is married to Davis.

The search warrant states that police searched for “items suggestive of the perpetrator’s motive and/or identity, such as photographs or undeveloped film, insurance policies and letters, address and telephone records, diaries and other documents.”

The affidavit requesting the warrant went on to say that police were looking for “notes, writings, account books and other handwritten or typed documents pertaining to television shows, documentaries, YouTube episodes, book manuscripts and films relating to the murder of Tupac Shakur.”

According to people with direct knowledge of the investigation, the case will be presented to a grand jury in Las Vegas. The timing and results of these procedures are still unclear.

In an interview with BET in 1998, Davis said he was in the front seat of the car that was driving alongside Shakur’s vehicle when gunfire rang out from the back seat, but declined to provide the identity of the shooter.

“I’m going to keep it because of the rules of the road,” Davis said when asked who of the four men in the vehicle was responsible for pulling the trigger. “It just came from the back seat, bro.”

Three hours before the shooting, surveillance footage from the MGM casino shows Shakur, Suge Knight, and their entourage attacking Anderson, a Los Angeles-area gang member, which many say led to Anderson and his friends shooting Shakur in retaliation. Anderson died in a gang-related shooting in 1998.

The first officer at the scene of the Shakur shooting in 1996, now a retired police lieutenant Chris CarrollHe believes Anderson is the person who shot Tupac and calls the recent search warrant “pretty significant.”

“It’s been 27 years. I think somebody’s given up hope of any kind of prosecution and that (…) changes the game and opens things up,” said Carroll, whose optimism remains cautious. “I’d be surprised if they found anything in this house that could serve as evidence at all, but you know, maybe they did.”