American music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs could face potential charges over the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur if Duane “Keffe D” Davis is convicted in his ongoing trial, according to legal sources cited by The Telegraph.
Davis is on trial in Las Vegas for allegedly plotting Shakur’s killing during the bitter East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry of the 1990s.
Prosecutors have relied partly on statements Davis made to police, in documentary interviews and in a memoir, in which he claimed he sought revenge after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was attacked by Shakur and members of his entourage.
The prosecution alleges Davis was inside the white Cadillac used in the shooting and later “tossed” the gun to the person who fired the fatal shots.
A secret police recording made in 2008 has also been presented as evidence. In the recording, Davis allegedly described how members of the South Side Compton Crips tracked down and shot Shakur in Las Vegas.
Davis also allegedly claimed that Combs offered him $1 million to kill Shakur.
“If prosecutors manage to convict Mr Davis, it gives a green light to take action against Diddy,” a source close to the district attorney’s office told The Telegraph.
Davis has denied the allegations, maintaining that he made the claims to gain fame and notoriety and that they were not true.
Prosecutors, however, argue that his repeated claims about his involvement in Shakur’s killing are credible. They say the shooting was carried out in retaliation for the earlier confrontation involving Anderson.
Combs has previously dismissed the allegations linking him to Shakur’s death as “pure fiction and completely ridiculous”.
Diddy and Tupac’s long-running feud
The allegations against Combs are linked to the long-running rivalry between him and Shakur during the 1990s.
The feud intensified after Shakur was shot during an armed robbery, an incident he believed was connected to Combs and his associates.
Tensions also grew following the release of “Who Shot Ya?” by Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G. Shakur viewed the song as a reference to his shooting, although Wallace and Combs denied that it was connected to the incident.
A source from the Clark County District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors had not ruled out taking action against Combs.
“The door remains open on what charges could be made against Diddy. But if the jury convicts Davis, then it gives a green light to take action against Diddy,” the source said.
“The strategy has remained to not bring in matters relating to Combs’s alleged role in all of these matters at this stage, because it would likely confuse the case and perhaps a jury.”
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has not publicly said whether prosecutors would consider charges against Combs if Davis is convicted. Police have also not identified Combs as a suspect in Shakur’s murder, and he denies involvement.
Although Combs is not expected to testify at Davis’s trial, his name has already featured in the proceedings.
At the time of Shakur’s death, Combs was running Bad Boy Records in New York and competing with Suge Knight, head of Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, which represented Shakur.
Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in September 1996. Six months later, Wallace was also killed in a separate shooting in Los Angeles.
The two murders became defining moments in the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry and remained unsolved for decades.
Several people connected to Combs are expected to appear as witnesses during Davis’s trial, according to a witness list filed in court. They include a former Bad Boy Records business partner and a former bodyguard.
Suge Knight is also listed as a potential witness and is currently serving a 28-year sentence for a hit-and-run.
Combs was prosecuted in 2025 over allegations including sex trafficking and racketeering. He was acquitted of the most serious charges and later sentenced to four years and two months in prison for lesser prostitution-related offences.
