CELEBRITY
Tupac’s family has hired investigators in response to claims that Diddy paid $1 million for the rapper’s murder and is preparing to take legal action if evidence is found…
Duane “Keefe D” Davis, the former gang member arrested last year in connection with the 1996 killing of rap legend Tupac Shakur, was a “confidential police informant” who went undercover in an attempt to implicate Sean “Diddy” Combs in Tupac’s murder.
In a legal filing published in part on July 20 by The Sun, Diddy — previously known as Puff Daddy — is mentioned a total of “77 times.”
Prosecutors in Clark County, Nevada submitted the filing in an effort to deny Keefe D bail ahead of his trial later this year.
The documents say Keefe D, a former Southside Compton Crips shot-caller, flew to New York with members of an LAPD task force in 2009, as part of an undercover operation to obtain evidence against the Bad Boy Records founder and New York City gangster Eric “Von Zip” Martin.
Keefe D became an informant after he was caught “trafficking a large amount of drugs” by the task force, according to the documents.
The task force was initially launched to investigate the 1997 murder in Los Angeles of rapper Christopher Wallace, better known to fans as Notorious B.I.G.
“Defendant denied any involvement in that murder, however, volunteered his knowledge about the murder of Tupac Shakur,” the documents say.
“Task Force Detectives believed they had jurisdiction to investigate a Nevada homicide because Defendant asserted that the conspiracy to commit the murder began in California between Defendant, Eric “Zip” Martin, and Sean Combs,” the documents say.
Keefe D goes on to allege that Combs offered him a million dollars for the murders of Tupac Shakur and former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, with Eric “Zip” Martin allegedly acting as an intermediary in the alleged contract killings.
In an audio recording obtained by The Sun, a man said to be Keefe D discusses Tupac’s killing and says the murder was “funny as a motherf–ker.”
Combs has previously denied having any involvement in the murder. In an interview several years ago with “The Breakfast Club,” he called rumors about his alleged involvement in Tupac’s death “nonsense.”
After traveling to New York City with LAPD detectives, Keefe D ran into Zip on the street outside his workplace on June 19, 2009, while “acting in an undercover capacity,” according to prosecutors.
“Mr. Martin [Zip] greeted Defendant excitedly and they had a social conversation,” the court papers say.
Keefe D has publicly denied being an informant.
“Defendant [Keefe] has asserted publicly that he only told on himself and wasn’t trying to provide evidence against anyone else in his conversations with police,” the documents say.
But behind closed doors he alleged Diddy offered him money to “handle” Tupac and Suge Knight in Las Vegas.
“He suggested that Sean Combs paid Eric Von Martin a million dollars for the killings,” the documents say.
Tupac was shot multiple times on the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996. He was in a vehicle with Knight when another car pulled up beside them and opened fire. The “Dear Mama” rapper died from his injuries several days later at age 25.
After the shooting, Diddy called Keefe D, the court papers allege.
“When Sean Combs reaches out to Defendant wondering if South Side Crips were responsible for Shakur’s death by asking, ‘Is that us?’ Defendant, beaming with pride, answers, ‘Yes,’” the documents say.
Diddy is currently facing a string of unrelated sexual abuse allegations as well as a federal sex trafficking investigation. It’s unclear if he will be called to testify in the Tupac murder case.
Keefe D is scheduled to go to trial Nov. 4, 2024.