The murder of Tupac Shakur remains one of hip hop’s darkest unsolved mysteries, and new court filings have once again placed Sean “Diddy” Combs at the center of explosive allegations.
Duane “Keefe D” Davis, who is awaiting trial for his alleged role in the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed 2Pac, has claimed that Diddy once placed a $1 million bounty on the rapper’s head. According to documents obtained by USA Today, Davis told federal agents during interviews in 2008 and 2009 that Diddy said “he would give anything for those dudes’ heads,” referring to Tupac and Death Row boss Suge Knight. Investigators allegedly offered Davis immunity in exchange for information at the time, and those interviews have now resurfaced as part of his defense team’s effort to limit his criminal exposure.
Though Diddy has never been charged in connection with Tupac’s death and has repeatedly denied involvement, the allegations continue to shadow him. In his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend, Davis again implicated Diddy but later backtracked, claiming his co-author took creative liberties with his story.
The accusations have also spilled into civil court. Former Bad Boy president Kirk Burrowes, in a separate lawsuit, alleged that Diddy was obsessed with overshadowing Tupac’s success, saying Combs displayed “paranoia and frustration” and even spoke of eliminating his rival. Diddy’s legal team dismissed Burrowes’ lawsuit as “frivolous” and a waste of the court’s time.
More recently, a February 2025 lawsuit filed by male escort Steve Otis included an even more chilling allegation. Otis accused Diddy of sexual assault and claimed the mogul referenced the 2Pac hit during the incident. “You better not say a word to anybody about this,” Otis quoted him as saying. “If I can get Pac hit, what the (expletive) do you think can happen to you?”
Despite facing a storm of civil cases, Diddy’s attorney Erica Wolff pointed to his acquittal earlier this year on federal trafficking and racketeering charges as proof that the allegations are unfounded. “Mr. Combs’s acquittal on the trafficking and RICO charges proves what we have been saying about the civil cases since day one: they are all fabricated attempts to extort windfall payments from an innocent man,” Wolff told USA Today.
The jury in that case cleared Diddy of the most serious charges but did convict him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He faces up to 20 years in prison but prosecutors have recommended a four-year sentence. His sentencing is set for October 3.
Meanwhile, Keefe D’s murder trial is scheduled to begin in February 2026, keeping the long-running questions about who ordered Tupac’s killing alive nearly three decades later.