Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man charged with orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, faces an additional count of battery following a fight in the Las Vegas jail where he’s been held for more than a year.
Security footage shows the 61-year-old suspect coming to blows with a 53-year-old inmate, who’s also charged with murder, according to Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS.
The men engaged “in mutual combat by grappling and throwing closed fist strikes,” according to charging documents obtained by the outlet on Tuesday. A corrections officer pepper-sprayed both men until they could be separated, the documents said.
Davis, who allegedly put his opponent in a headlock, told officials he was defending himself. The altercation appears to have happened last week, but it’s unclear what initiated the brawl.
Davis has been in custody since September 2023 when he was arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of Shakur on the Las Vegas Strip. Death Row Records exec Marion “Suge” Knight was also wounded by gunfire prosecutors said came from a vehicle in which Davis was a passenger.
The three other passengers in the Cadillac carrying Davis are no longer alive. Among them were gangster Orlando Anderson, who’s believed to have fired several shots from the vehicle’s backseat. Anderson was killed in a seemingly unrelated shooting in 1998.
Davis is the only suspect ever charged in Shakur’s high-profile murder. While he’s not accused of being the shooter, prosecutors have said he was the “on-site commander” who “ordered the death” of the rapper in retaliation for a prior gang-related confrontation.
In his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” Davis claimed he gave the murder weapon to Anderson, whom he calls his nephew, shortly before Shakur was riddled with bullets. The 25-year-old “Hit Em Up” rapper died in a Sin City hospital nearly a week after the shooting.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and is scheduled to go on trial in March. A hearing has been scheduled for Feb. 11 to determine if the trial will begin as planned.
