Context: What Greg Kading writes about who ordered the killings consists of an investigator’s theories, not court verdicts. Sean Combs was never charged in the Shakur case and denies any involvement; Suge Knight was never charged in the case of The Notorious B.I.G. The August 31, 2026 conviction of Duane “Keffe D” Davis is not final (as of October 2026).
Greg Kading was never assigned to the Tupac case. As a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective, his job was to solve the murder of The Notorious B.I.G. Yet he is regarded as one of the men without whom there would never have been a trial in the Shakur case: in 2008, Duane “Keffe D” Davis described his role that night to him and his partner for the first time. Years later, Kading made this confidential confession public.
22 Years on the Force and an Unsolved Case: The Biggie Task Force
Kading was a Los Angeles police officer for 22 years, ending up in the Robbery-Homicide Division. In 2006, he was assigned to the Christopher Wallace case, whose leads had led nowhere since March 9, 1997. In parallel, a civil lawsuit filed by the Wallace family against the city alleged police involvement in the murder; it was later dropped. Kading led a joint task force comprising the LAPD and federal agencies, with Detective Daryn Dupree as his partner.
Drug Trafficking as Leverage: Keffe D Breaks His Silence
The task force sought leverage and found it: Davis faced life imprisonment for trafficking in PCP and cocaine. In 2008, Kading and Dupree approached him and offered him an opportunity to talk. During the confidential interrogation (a proffer agreement intended to protect against self-incrimination), Kading said according to the recording: “Nothing you say today can be used against you.” Davis denied any involvement in Biggie’s murder, but volunteered details about the murder of Tupac: he had procured the gun and passed it to the back seat, and his nephew Orlando Anderson had fired the shots. According to Kading, he did not know the conversation was being recorded.
Davis also made an allegation regarding Sean Combs: that Combs had offered money through a middleman to have Tupac and Suge Knight killed. That was never substantiated. Combs denies it, the prosecution in the 2026 trial brought no charges against him, and Davis himself called the story made up after the verdict.
A Hit for Suge Knight? Kading’s Biggie Theory
In May 2009, the LAPD and the FBI took the statement of a woman close to Suge Knight. According to Kading’s account, Knight, who was incarcerated at the time, used her to hire Wardell “Poochie” Fouse, who shot Biggie outside the Petersen Automotive Museum. Fouse was killed in 2003 in a shooting unrelated to the case and could never be questioned. Knight was never charged in the Wallace case and did not respond to inquiries regarding the theory. For the Los Angeles police, the case remains open; Kading calls it “solved, but unprosecuted.”
Investigation Halted: Kading Leaves the Force
No charges were filed. Kading was pulled from the case, and the task force was disbanded. Around the same time, he came under scrutiny over discrepancies in another, unrelated proceeding; according to a report by Grantland, he was later cleared. His former supervisor Kevin McClure stated that the investigation had simply stalled because the confessions could not be corroborated. In 2010, Kading left the force, disillusioned.
“Murder Rap”: A Book Brings the Tapes to Light
In October 2011, Kading self-published Murder Rap. The book made the Davis conversations and the Biggie theory public and accused the police of failures. Combs had a representative state that the story was “pure fiction and completely ridiculous.” Perry Sanders, attorney for the Wallace family, accused Kading of glossing over possible police involvement. The documentary Murder Rap followed in 2015, and in 2018 the television series Unsolved, in which Josh Duhamel played Kading (news item).
Pressure on Las Vegas: Davis Repeats His Confession Publicly
For years, Kading pushed for an arrest. His reasoning: starting in 2018, Davis had repeated his story on television, on YouTube, and in his own book, and unlike the 2008 statements, these accounts were not protected. In 2019, he told CBS Los Angeles there was “clearly probable cause” (news item), and in 2020 he called Davis a “self-confessor.” After the 2023 home search, he told the AP that only Davis’s public statements had provided Las Vegas with the grounds for an indictment. According to the prosecution, it was Kading’s book in particular that had provoked Davis into speaking publicly.
Attacked in Court, Confirmed by the Verdict: The 2026 Trial
During the trial, Kading was on standby as a potential witness, but was not called. The defense attacked him regardless, calling him a disgraced ex-cop and accusing him of having taken investigative files. Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo pushed back during closing arguments, stating there was no evidence Kading had done anything wrong. Kading told Rolling Stone that he had only made copies, that an internal investigation had dismissed the theft allegation, and that Davis had never been promised anonymity.
He watched the guilty verdict on a livestream. “It feels like vindication,” he said. Davis, in turn, claimed after the verdict that Kading had wanted to make money from the case from the very beginning. Today, Kading works as a private investigator.
What the Verdict Confirms, and What Remains Speculation
Kading’s core account of the Tupac case-that Davis was sitting in the Cadillac and that the shooting was retaliation for the beating of his nephew-aligns with the jury’s verdict. Who fired the shots remains unresolved to this day. His broader theories concerning who ordered the hits in both cases remain unproven.
Further reading: The Investigation, Suspects at a Glance, and The Trial of Duane Davis.