Property records show that a house searched in connection with the investigation into Tupac Shakur’s killing belongs to the wife of a self-proclaimed witness to the rapper’s shooting.
The search warrant, obtained by CNN, names Duane Keith Davis and shows police were looking for “items that tend to show evidence of motive and/or the identity of the perpetrator such as photographs or undeveloped film, insurance policies and letters, address and telephone records, diaries, and other documents…”
The property records show that the target of the search, a home on Maple Shade Street in Henderson, Nevada, belongs to Paula Clemons who is married to Davis, also known as “Keffe D.”
Keffe D is a self-proclaimed witness to Shakur’s 1996 fatal shooting.
Police took several tablets, an iPhone, and five computers from the home when they executed the warrant on Monday. Also taken were USB and hard drives, photographs, “purported marijuana,” along with a copy of “Vibe” magazine about Tupac, and a copy of the book “Compton Street Legends” by Keffe D with Yusuf Jah.
The affidavit requesting the warrant shows police were looking for, among other items, “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.”
Items seized from the Las Vegas home also included a copy of the memoir Davis authored detailing street gang life and the murder of Shakur.
In the book, Davis describes himself as one of only two living witnesses to Shakur’s shooting, the other being Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, former CEO of Death Row Records, who is now serving time in prison for manslaughter in an unrelated case. Knight was driving the car in which Shakur was a passenger when the rapper was shot.
Davis is believed to be the uncle of Orlando Anderson, who has long been suspected of being involved in Tupac’s murder, a charge he denied to CNN before his death in a gang-related shooting in 1998.
In a 1998 interview with BET, Davis said he was in the front seat of the other car – the one that came up alongside Shakur’s automobile – when shots rang out from the backseat.
“Going to keep it for the code of the streets,” Davis said when asked between the four men in the car, who was responsible for pulling the trigger. “It just came from the backseat, bro.”
Three hours before the shooting, MGM casino surveillance video shows Shakur, Suge Knight and their entourage attacking Anderson, an L.A.-area gang member. Many believe that Anderson and his friends shot Shakur in retaliation. Anderson died in a gang-related shooting in 1998.
Retired police lieutenant Chris Carroll, the first officer on the scene of the infamous shooting on the Las Vegas strip, tells CNN affiliate KSNV this week that he believes Anderson is the person who shot Shakur.
“I think it’s pretty significant,” Carroll said of the search warrant. “You know, I don’t think anybody saw this coming. It, it’s been 27 years. I think anybody had given up hope on any type of prosecution and this, you know, kind of changes the game and open things up.”
Carroll’s optimism is tempered. “I would be surprised if they even found anything in that home that is usable as evidence, but you know, maybe, maybe they did,” he said. “It’s 27 years later, it’s going to be tough to find evidence.”
Shakur was shot multiple times in Las Vegas in 1996 while leaving a boxing match at the MGM Grand hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. At the time of his fatal shooting, he was in a car with Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them and began shooting out of the back window.
CNN reported at the time that authorities believed the rapper was the intended target of the shooting, but since 1996, the investigation has remained unsolved.