Man charged in Tupac Shakur’s death claims Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs put out $1 million hit
As members of two California gangs poured out of a Las Vegas boxing match in September 1996, Tupac Shakur, the most famous rapper in the country at the time, sucker-punched a rival.
The man hit the ground, and the mob attacked. Shakur, along with Death Row Records executive Marion “Suge” Knight and members of the Bloods street gang, beat him until security showed up. The man declined medical treatment and wouldn’t tell the police what happened.
But he did tell his uncle, Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis.
Davis, a leader of the Crips street gang, wanted to help his nephew get revenge. But in a Drug Enforcement Administration report detailing a secret police interview, obtained by USA TODAY and filed in court earlier this year, Davis said he had another reason to go after Shakur and Knight: Sean “Diddy” Combs had placed a $1 million bounty on the two men’s heads.
Hours after the beat-down at the hotel, Shakur was shot in a drive-by. He died several days later. Knight was grazed in the head and survived.
Davis was charged with Shakur’s murder in 2023, around the same time federal investigators targeted Combs for a host of unrelated crimes.
Two more accusations that Combs was involved in Shakur’s death have surfaced in records filed as part of a spate of civil suits against Combs: that he bragged about ordering the hit, and that he may have paid for the rented Cadillac used in the drive-by shooting.
Shakur’s murder and that of rival rapper Biggie Smalls, who was shot in March 1997, have been scrutinized for nearly three decades, both in the media and in the courts. The killings have spawned conspiracy theories of cover-ups, hit men and cops on gangbangers’ payrolls. USA TODAY’s review of the previously secret law enforcement and grand jury files, along with court records in civil cases against Combs, provide new insight into his suspected involvement in a murder-for-hire and the violent hip hop rivalry that preceded it.
Combs, 55, has not been charged in connection with Shakur’s death and has repeatedly denied he was involved. A spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told USA TODAY Combs has never been a suspect in Shakur’s murder.
In an unrelated federal case, Combs recently stood trial on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. In early July, the jury convicted him of two prostitution charges but acquitted him of the more serious racketeering and sex trafficking counts. His sentencing is set for October.
Combs’ attorneys have pushed back against allegations of wrongdoing, which have swirled around him since the federal investigation began. They have filed defamation lawsuits against his accusers and the media, claiming in one that “all pretense of objectivity has been abandoned, as a global audience feasts at the all-you-can-eat buffet of wild lies and conspiracy theories.”
In a statement to USA TODAY, one of Combs’ attorneys, Erica Wolff, said the jury’s not-guilty verdicts undermine the validity of the civil claims:
“Mr. Combs’s acquittal on the trafficking and RICO charges proves what we have been saying about the civil cases since day one: they are all fabricated attempts to extort windfall payments from an innocent man.”
Why was Tupac Shakur shot?
The murders of Shakur and Smalls, whose real name was Christopher Wallace and who also performed under the moniker The Notorious B.I.G., largely defined 1990s hip-hop and roiled the music industry. Shakur and Smalls were among the most influential artists to top mainstream music charts rapping about growing up poor and Black in crime-ridden neighborhoods.