Tupac Shakur’s family have retained attorneys to investigate a shock allegation that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs may have played a part in the rapper’s 1996 murder.

Former LA gang leader Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis, 61, who is accused of murdering Shakur, claimed in 2009 that Diddy offered him $1 million to assassinate the rapper. 

Diddy has never been a suspect in the murder.

Davis is accused of orchestrating the  drive-by shooting that killed Shakur aged 25 in Las Vegas. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and is set to go to trial in November.

The allegation resurfaced when Davis requested a bail reconsideration, and prosecutors opposed, citing the Combs allegation as a reason for keeping him jailed.

Sources told TMZ members of Tupac’s surviving relatives have retained attorneys Alex Spiro and Christopher Clore – as well as a team of investigators – to look into the allegation that Diddy offered to pay  Davis and his crew money to murder Tupac.

It was claimed the family feel the claim may have substance and together with the legal team are hoping to dig up any potential evidence. 

The insiders claim the team running the private investigation are confident they will find potential evidence, including more legal documents.

If information is found that implicates Diddy this will be passed to the authorities – but if nothing does arise on the criminal front, Shakur’s family will reportedly look into filing a wrongful death suit.

DailyMail.com has contacted Diddy’s representative for comment. 

Davis – the only person still alive who was in the vehicle from which shots were fired and the only person ever to be charged with a crime in the case – has been held in a Las Vegas jail since his arrest last September.

Citing a 2009 interview with Las Vegas police, prosecutors alleged Davis ‘suggested’ that Combs paid ‘Eric Von Martin a million dollars for the killings’ and ‘offered to set up a surreptitious phone call’ with driver Terrance Bown, according to the July 18 court filing which was obtained by Fox 5.

Combs, who is mentioned 77 times in the nearly 180-page court documents, has never been a suspect in Shakur’s killing. Law enforcement sources told TMZ that he still is not considered a suspect in the case. 

The documents allegedly include a transcript of Davis’ 2009 interview with police, during which he claimed Combs offered to pay for the shooting as part of an ongoing feud with then-record executive Marion ‘Suge’ Knight.

Davis told investigators, according to the court filing, that Combs said of Knight: ‘I would give anything for that dude [sic] head’. Knight was in the vehicle with Shakur at the time of the shooting.

‘[Davis] has asserted publicly that he only told on himself and wasn’t trying to provide evidence against anyone else in his conversations with police,’ the Clark County District Attorney’s Office argued in the documents.

‘However, this statement belies this claim, as he suggested that Sean Combs paid Eric Von Martin a million dollars for the killings as well as offered to set up a surreptitious phone call with Terrence Brown, the driver, who, at the time, was still alive. ‘ 

The prosecution’s filing also allegedly included a summary of a separate interview that Davis did with a BET documentary crew in 2017 in which he suggested Combs was involved in Shakur’s death.

DailyMail.com approached the Clark County District Attorney’s Office for comment. 

Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny last month rejected Davis’ bid to have a hip-hop music figure put up $112,500 to obtain his $750,000 bail bond.

Kierny then issued a terse written order hours later giving Davis’ lawyer, Carl Arnold, one week to provide more documentation about the source of the money.

It was recently reported that Arnold was fielding offers for a film crew to follow him working on Davis’ behalf. 

Arnold was quoted calling Shakur’s death a ‘legacy’ legal case and invoking the memory of Johnnie Cochran, a defense attorney for O.J. Simpson during his 1995 trial in Los Angeles. Cochran, who died in 2005, was famously credited with showing jurors a glove and saying, ‘If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.’

Davis, standing in shackles as he appeared in court earlier this month, complained about police and prosecutors reviewing material compiled by a former Los Angeles police detective, Greg Kading, for a 2011 book about the killings of Shakur in Las Vegas and rival rap icon Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.

‘Them boxes should not be allowed,’ Davis said of records now being examined by police and prosecutors for possible evidence ahead of his trial, scheduled for Nov. 4.

‘Mr. Greg Kading had those boxes at his house for 15 years in his attic doing all kind of TV interviews,’ Davis said. ‘He broke a proper agreement, and he broke the law, all kinds of stuff.’

Davis also accused the prosecutors, Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal, of ‘trashing my family in this.’

‘They not only ugly on the outside but they ugly on the inside too,’ Davis said. ‘These two dudes right here.’

DiGiacomo and Palal did not respond later to requests for comment.

Davis said in his own 2019 tell-all memoir – on leading a street gang in his hometown of Compton, California – that he was promised immunity from prosecution when he told authorities in Los Angeles what he knew about the shootings of Shakur and Wallace.

No arrests have ever been made in the Wallace case. Davis is the only person ever charged in the Shakur killing.

Kading said by telephone Tuesday that he turned over his investigative records to Las Vegas police this year – several months after Davis was indicted and arrested at his home in suburban Henderson, Nevada. Kading said he broke no laws and none of the material was obtained or kept illegally.

‘I don’t lose sleep over the fact that a confessed murderer is at odds with me for sharing information about his involvement in a murder,’ Kading said. ‘None of what he said reveals new information. It’s well known. It was based on investigative resources from when I was at the LAPD.’

Nevada law prohibits convicted killers from profiting from their crime. But Arnold argued that since Davis hasn’t been convicted, it didn’t matter if Davis and Jones – a record executive offering to underwrite Davis’ $750,000 bail – plan to profit from selling Davis’ life story.

Jones, who has managed artists including Johnathan ‘Blueface’ Porter and Jayceon ‘The Game’ Taylor, testified in June that he wanted to put up money for Davis because Davis was fighting cancer and had ‘always been a monumental person in our community … especially the urban community.’

Arnold on Tuesday characterized Davis’ story as intensely interesting to the public with or without mention of the Shakur killing. He called his client ‘one of the most notorious gang leaders of all of Southern California’ and ‘the godfather of Compton.’

The attorney declined to comment following the court hearing.

The judge decided June 26 she wasn’t convinced that Davis and Jones weren’t planning to profit. She also said she couldn’t determine if Jones wasn’t serving as a ‘middleman’ on behalf of another unnamed person.

Palal said in court that a judge can set any condition deemed necessary to ensure that a defendant returns to court for trial. If Davis is allowed to post a ‘gift’ for release, he’d have no incentive to comply with court orders or appear for trial, the prosecutor said.

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If he’s convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. 

Authorities allege that the shooting stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang and West Coast parts of a Crips gang, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as ‘gangsta rap.’

Marion ‘Suge’ Knight, now 59, is serving 28 years in a California prison for killing a Compton businessman with a vehicle in 2015.

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Source: New York Post