27 years later, the mastermind behind the murder of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur has been arrested.

For almost 30 years, the murder of Tupac Shakur remained one of the longest unsolved crimes in the music industry, writes The Guardian. His 1996 murder near the Las Vegas Strip has sparked countless reports, books and documentaries attempting to determine who exactly was responsible for the hip-hop legend’s death.

But on Friday, Nevada authorities announced they had finally made an arrest in the case. Dwayne “Coffee Dee” Davis, a former gang leader and one of the last surviving witnesses to the crime, was charged with murder for allegedly masterminding the drive-by shooting.

Davis, prosecutors say, admitted to being the “direct leader of the Tupac murder operation” after the rapper was involved in a fight with his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, who had long been a suspect in the murder.

“It’s often said that justice delayed is justice denied,” Steve Wolfson, Clark County district attorney, told The Associated Press. “In this case, justice was delayed, but justice will not be denied.”

Officials say the development was made possible in part by Davis himself, who described his involvement in the 2019 shooting in a memoir.

The murder of Tupac Shakur, an iconic and beloved artist who sold more than 75 million records, generated great public interest that continued for decades. There have long been questions and conspiracy theories surrounding this case, as well as criticism of the Las Vegas police for botching the investigation, The Guardian recalls.

Tupac Shakur was shot and killed off the Las Vegas strip on September 7, 1996, while heading to an afterparty with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight. Earlier in the evening, the rapper attended Mike Tyson’s fight at the MGM Grand Hotel and was later involved in a physical confrontation with Anderson and several others, during which Shakur grappled with Anderson over a previous dispute.

Later that evening, Shakur and Knight were in a BMW heading to a party in a convoy of about 10 cars. While they were waiting at a red light, a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and fired eight shots. Shakur, who was leaning out the window to flirt with women in a nearby car, was shot four times and died less than a week later at age 25.

The rapper’s death came while he was feuding with rival Biggie Smalls, fueling speculation about the role East Coast-West Coast rivalry played. But the case remained unsolved because police were unable to find important leads and ruled Anderson out as a suspect, despite information from the LAPD that he was the shooter. Anderson was shot and killed in a separate incident in 1998.

Rapper Yaki Kadafi, who was in the car next to Shakur at the time of the shooting, immediately told police that he saw the attackers driving a white Cadillac and could identify the killer. Las Vegas police did not act on the tip, and several months later, Kadafi was fatally shot in an unrelated incident.

Davis had long been known to investigators and those chronicling the case. Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles detective who spent years investigating Shakur’s murder and wrote a book on the subject, said he interviewed Davis in 2008 and 2009 during the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into Shakur’s killing. and the murders of Christopher Wallace, known as Biggie Smalls. At the time, he identified Davis as the prime suspect in Shakur’s murder.

But it was Davis’ decision in recent years to speak publicly about his ties to the shooting and to publish and promote a tell-all memoir that brought new momentum to the case and paved the way for his arrest, authorities said.

He revealed his “involvement in this crime” on television, Clark County Prosecutor Mark DiGiacomo said, apparently referring to a 2018 BET documentary show in which Davis said he knew the identity of Shakur’s killer.

“I was a Compton kingpin, a drug dealer. “I’m the only person alive who can actually tell you the story of the Tupac murder,” he said at the time.

DiGiacomo argued that Davis’ 2019 autobiography, “A Compton Street Legend,” supported the accusation, noting that he called himself a “shooter” for the South Side Compton Crips gang and quoted part of his book where he said, “If we were an army, I was a five-star general.” The district attorney also noted that Davis described in his book how he was in the front seat of a car driven by Shakur.

Prosecutors argued that Davis, who is the last living person among the four people in the Cadillac, was seeking retribution for the beating of his nephew Anderson. According to them, he allegedly searched for weapons on the night of September 7, 1996 with the intention of “hunting down” Shakur.

In the book, Davis spoke of his anger when he learned that the death row team had attacked his nephew. “We couldn’t let the record studio gangsters do this to us. Are they completely out of their minds, these damn rappers? …Suge and his boys were extremely disrespectful when they beat up my nephew Baby Lane on video that was seen around the world!” He said he planned to “meet Suge face to face” and ask, “Why the fuck did you all attack my nephew?”

Describing the moments before he and the passengers in his car, including Anderson, accidentally drove past Shakur’s car, Davis wrote: “I pulled out the Glock Zip had given me and threw it in the back seat. Bubble Up was driving, with Baby Lane and Freaky in the back.” He said Shakur noticed them and “made a hesitant move and started putting his hand under his seat,” and that at that moment, “fireworks” started that “happened so quickly.” .

“The moral of the story is: you don’t mess with real gangsters! The fact that they attacked my nephew gave us the final green light to do something about their asses,” he wrote, but added: “At this point in my life, I can say that I have a deep sense of remorse for what happened with Tupac. He was a talented artist with enormous potential to impact the world. “I hate that Tupac’s family, friends and fans, especially his mother, Afeni Shakur, have had to endure the pain of losing their son.”

The district attorney argued that the narrative in his book supported the claim that Davis was “a direct commander in the attempt to kill Shakur and Suge Knight” and that he “acquired a firearm.” The prosecutor noted that Davis promoted the book at least eight times, repeating similar stories.

In July, Las Vegas police raided the home of Davis’ wife, Paula Clemons, looking for items “related to the murder of Tupac Shakur.” They said they collected computers, a cell phone and hard drive, a Vibe magazine featuring Shakur, several .40-caliber rounds of ammunition, two “photo packages,” and a copy of “Legends of Compton Street.”

On Friday morning, police arrested Davis while he was walking near his home in Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas.

Joel Anderson, a journalist who chronicled the murders of Shakur and Wallace on the podcast Slow Burn, said of the arrest: “This man spent years telling everyone what happened in Vegas that night, publicly, without remorse. And today he faces what he thought would never happen: consequences.”