Thirty years after Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Duane Keith Davis, a former South Side Compton Crips gang leader, has been found guilty of the hip-hop legend's murder. The verdict was announced on Monday afternoon in a Las Vegas court.
The night of the shooting
In 1996, Shakur was shot in a drive-by ambush in Las Vegas. He was 25 years old and already one of the biggest artists in the US. He had just released the album All Eyez on Me, which produced two No 1 singles, had worked with some of hip-hop's greatest stars and had starred in Hollywood films.
For 30 years, no one was held to account for his murder, while his legend and the conspiracies surrounding his death only grew.
Evidence and conviction
Journalist Jessica Hill, who has been covering the case, says there was little physical evidence of Davis's wrongdoing. Instead, the case rested on accounts Davis himself had given in books, podcasts and interviews about his actions on the night. Although convicted of murder, Davis is not believed to be the person who pulled the trigger on the night Shakur was killed.
William Shaw, who had met and interviewed Shakur, remembers an erudite, multi-talented 25-year-old with a rich cultural life. He says Shakur's death should be seen in the context of the terrible situation in Los Angeles at the time.
“It was about this terrible situation of massive drug sales going on, which was funding massive ongoing violence. And then this fact that this community was incredibly historically maltreated,” Shaw said.
