Las Ve­gas po­lice have ar­rest­ed a man in the dead­ly 1996 dri­ve-by shoot­ing of Tu­pac Shakur, a long-await­ed break in a case that has frus­trat­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tors and fas­ci­nat­ed the pub­lic ever since the hip-hop icon was gunned down on the Las Ve­gas Strip 27 years ago.

Du­ane “Keffe D” Davis was ar­rest­ed ear­ly Fri­day morn­ing, al­though the ex­act charge or charges were not im­me­di­ate­ly clear, ac­cord­ing to two of­fi­cials with first-hand knowl­edge of the ar­rest. They were not au­tho­rized to speak pub­licly ahead of an ex­pect­ed in­dict­ment lat­er Fri­day.

Davis has long been known to in­ves­ti­ga­tors and has him­self ad­mit­ted in in­ter­views and in his 2019 tell-all mem­oir, “Comp­ton Street Leg­end,” that he was in the Cadil­lac where the gun­fire erupt­ed dur­ing the Sep­tem­ber 1996 dri­ve-by shoot­ing. Shakur was 25 when he was gunned down.

The ar­rest comes more than two months af­ter Las Ve­gas po­lice raid­ed his wife’s home on Ju­ly 17 in neigh­bour­ing Hen­der­son. Doc­u­ments said po­lice were look­ing for items “con­cern­ing the mur­der of Tu­pac Shakur.”

Po­lice re­port­ed col­lect­ing mul­ti­ple com­put­ers, a cell­phone and hard dri­ve, a Vibe mag­a­zine that fea­tured Shakur, sev­er­al .40-cal­iber bul­lets, two “tubs con­tain­ing pho­tographs” and a copy of Davis’ mem­oir.

In the book, Davis said he broke his si­lence over Tu­pac’s killing in 2010 dur­ing a closed-door meet­ing with fed­er­al and lo­cal au­thor­i­ties. At the time, he was 46 and fac­ing life in prison on drug charges when he agreed to speak with the au­thor­i­ties.

“They promised they would shred the in­dict­ment and stop the grand ju­ry if I helped them out,” he wrote.

He has de­scribed him­self as one of the last liv­ing wit­ness­es to the shoot­ing.