In this Aug. 15, 1996, file photo, rapper Tupac Shakur, left, and a founder of Death Row Records, Marion "Suge" Knight, attend a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles (AP)

Las Vegas police have arrested a man in connection with Tupac Shakur's 1996 drive-by shooting, inching closer to close of one of hip-hop's most prominent unsolved homicides.

Shakur, who has been nominated for six Grammy awards, is widely regarded as one of the most influential rappers of all time.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, a former gang leader and famous drug dealer in Los Angeles, was apprehended early Friday morning.

Investigators had long known Davis, whose late nephew Orlando Anderson was a suspect in Shakur's murder. In interviews and in his 2019 autobiography, Compton Street Legend, he claimed to be in the white Cadillac from which gunshots erupted during the September 1996 drive-by shooting. Shakur was 25 years old when he died six days later from his injuries.

The arrest comes two months after LA police raided Davis's wife, Paula Clemons', house in search of articles "concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur."

Davis, who is the last living witness of the shooting, says in the book that he broke his silence on Tupac's death in 2010 at a closed-door encounter with federal and local officials. He was 46 at the time and faced life in jail on narcotics charges.

"They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out," he detailed in the book.

Shakur was assassinated after being shot 4 times in his vehicle on September 7, 1996, after seeing a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand Hotel.

Davis admitted in a BET show interview in 2018 that he was in the Cadillac at the time, citing that his nephew was one of the two people in the backseat where the shots that killed Shakur were fired.

An arrest "long overdue"

Anderson had denied involvement and died in 2020 in a California shooting.

Nominated six times for a Grammy award, Shakur is largely considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time.

Greg Kading, a former Los Angeles police officer who spent years researching the Shakur shooting and published a book about it, stated that Davis' arrest was "long overdue," detailing that people were "yearning" for him to be arrested.

Kading believes the inquiry received fresh traction in recent years as a result of Davis' public claims of his participation in the murder, such as in Compton Street Legend.

"He put himself squarely in the middle of the conspiracy," Kading stated, adding that "He had acquired the gun, he had given the gun to the shooter and he had been present in the vehicle when they hunted down and located both Tupac and Suge [Knight]."

The former officer expressed that since the killing was premeditated, Davis could be charged with first-degree murder.

"Keffe D is the last man standing among the individuals that conspired to kill Tupac."