According to a warrant, Las Vegas police officers searching for evidence in the unsolved murder of Tupac Shakur in 1996 targeted the residence of an alleged member of the gang that committed the crime.
The residence that was searched on Monday belonged to Duane Keith Davis, 60, who was reportedly a passenger in the vehicle that carried the gunman.
Mr. Davis has denied any role in the incident in the past, but he has also described being present at the site. In relation to this case, there have been no arrests.
Hard drives, tablets, and computers were among the items that the police confiscated.
It is believed that Mr. Davis, also known as “Keefy D” or “Keffe D,” is a member of the South Side Compton Crips street gang. Keefy D and Keffe D are both nicknames for Mr. Davis.
Tupac Shakur: Police seize hard drives and laptops at house
The authorities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas initially investigated him in connection with Shakur’s death, but after he denied involvement in the crime, the investigation was dropped.
The search was conducted on Monday at a home in the Las Vegas neighbourhood of Henderson, which is less than 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the Las Vegas strip and is the location of the drive-by gunshot in which Shakur was injured.
According to the search warrant, which was obtained by BBC News on Thursday, the authorities were seeking “notes, writings, ledgers, and other handwritten or typed documents concerning television shows, documentaries, YouTube episodes, book manuscripts, and movies concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur.”
A number of hard drives, tablets, and computers were among the devices that were taken into custody.
Along with that, a copy of Vibe magazine showing Tupac was taken, as was a copy of the book Compton Street Legends, which Mr. Davis co-authored.
According to the search warrant, the police were looking for items that “tend to show evidence of the motive and/or identity of the perpetrator, such as photographs and undeveloped film, insurance policies, letters, address and telephone records, diaries, and other documents, whether such items are written, typed, or stored on computer discs.”
Examples of these types of items include photographs and undeveloped film; insurance policies; photographs and undeveloped film; letters, address, and telephone records; diaries; and other documents.
Mr. Davis has suggested, both in a documentary that was published on Netflix in 2018 and in a book that was published in 2019, that he was in the automobile with the person who shot and killed Mr. Shakur.
A former officer spoke to CBS News, the US partner of the BBC, about Mr. Davis’s 2009 conversation with the Los Angeles police department regarding the murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G., in which he supplied details of Shakur’s murder in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
In the interview with the police, he stated that his nephew Orlando Anderson, who had been in a dispute with Shakur the night of his death and who was later himself killed in a separate crime, was the one who fired the fatal shots. Anderson was eventually assassinated in a separate crime.
The former LAPD detective who was in charge of conducting the interview is a proponent of Mr. Davis’s incarceration. In 2019, he stated to CBS that there is sufficient evidence to arrest him, adding that he is “boasting about it, making money off of it, and taunting law enforcement.” He also stated that he is “making money off of it.”
Shakur, whose stage name was stylized as 2Pac, launched his debut album in 1991 and went on to have chart success with tracks including California Love, All Eyez on Me, Changes, and I Am Not Mad at Cha. His real name is Tupac Shakur.
He passed away on September 13, 1996, exactly one week after being shot four times while sitting in his automobile at a red light. He had been waiting for the signal.
In 2017, Tupac Shakur was admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, having racked up more than 75 million album sales all over the world.