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Tupac Shakur (also known as 2Pac)) and actress Jada Pinkett Smith in 1996© Gene Shaw

Jada Pinkett Smith shares heartbreaking update with fans after shocking Tupac Shakur arrest

Jada, who is married to Will Smith, was friends with 2Pac in the 1980s

Rebecca Lewis
Rebecca Lewis - Los Angeles
Los Angeles correspondentLos Angeles
September 30, 2023
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Jada Pinkett Smith has revealed she is hopeful for "closure," following the news that Las Vegas police arrested a man for the murder of Tupac Shakur, 26 years after his death. 

"Now I hope we can get some answers and have some closure,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories Friday September 29, in response to the arrest of Duane “Keffe D” Davis. 

Jada Pinkett Smith with American rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996© Mychal Watts
Jada Pinkett Smith with American rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996

"R.I.P. Pac," she added, including a dove emoji. Jada and Tupac – real name Lesane Parish Crooks – met in the mid 1980s when they were both students at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland. 

"It was the first day and he came over to me and introduced himself,” she had previously revealed of the early days of their friendship. "And in high school, Pac was a little funny looking. Definitely from looking at him, wasn’t necessarily the type of cat that I would even like, deal with. 

"But as soon as he approached me, he was like a magnet. Once you paid attention to him he kind of sucked you in. And we hit it off from that moment on. I don’t think either one of us thought we would have made it in the way that we did, but we knew we were gonna do something.” 

Jada Pinkett Smith's Insta story © Instagram
Jada shared a heartbreaking update with her followers

Also known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, Tupac was an American rapper who addressed the contemporary social issues of young African-Americans in the early 1990s. 

He became one of the leading figures in the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that also included Notorious B.I.G and Puff Daddy.

American rapper, songwriter, and actor Tupac Shakur poses for a portrait© Bob Berg
American rapper, songwriter, and actor Tupac Shakur poses for a portrait in 1994

He was shot four times on September 7 1996 in Las Vegas: once in the arm, once in the thigh, and twice in the chest including into his right lung. 

He was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada where he was placed on life support, but he died on September 13 1996 from internal bleeding. 

Rapper Tupac Shakur poses for photos backstage after his performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994© Raymond Boyd
Tupac was shot and killed in 1996

A Nevada grand jury indicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the killing, prosecutors announced in court Friday. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo described Davis as the “on-ground, on-site commander” who had "ordered the death" of the rapper as "revenge" following an assault carried out by Tupac and Suge Knight on Davis' nephew. 

Davis, 60, and one of the last living witnesses to the shooting, was arrested on Friday September 29 while on a walk near his home. 

It comes months after Las Vegas police raided a home tied to Davis - who was in the white Cadillac from which the gunfire erupted - where they collected personal photographs, computers, a cell phone and hard drive, .40-caliber bullets, and a copy of Davis’ memoir, Compton Street Legend, a tell-all book released in 2019.

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