For nearly three decades, the murder of Tupac Shakur has been a tangled web of gang rivalries, street justice, and unanswered questions. But a bombshell revelation now threatens to unravel the entire official narrative, suggesting the truth is far more sinister and has been deliberately concealed by the highest levels of law enforcement. A former bodyguard for Tupac, who was also working as an undercover asset for a multi-agency task force, has confirmed the existence of a secret FBI videotape that allegedly captures the entire crime on film. This tape, reportedly shot from a mere 24 feet away, is the potential “smoking gun” that could not only definitively identify the killer but also expose a sprawling conspiracy of police corruption and an internal power play to take over the Death Row Records empire.

Tupac Shakur: Police seize hard drives and laptops at house

As Dwayne “Keefe D” Davis awaits trial in 2026 for his alleged role in the murder, this new information casts a dark shadow over the prosecution’s case, which relies heavily on Davis’s own, now-disputed, confessions. The existence of this tape forces a critical question: Was Tupac’s death a simple gang retaliation, or was it a sophisticated hit, orchestrated by insiders and covered up by the very people sworn to uphold the law?

The Secret Tape and the Coerced Confession

The claim of a secret FBI tape comes from Kevin Hackie, a former Compton School District police officer who infiltrated Death Row Records as an undercover agent for the FBI and ATF. Hackie alleges he saw paperwork confirming that the FBI possesses video of both Tupac’s and Biggie Smalls’ murders. Given that the FBI was already conducting a massive, multi-year racketeering investigation into Suge Knight and Death Row—complete with wiretaps and covert surveillance—the idea that they were recording that night in Las Vegas is not only plausible but likely.

This raises the stakes for the trial of Keefe D, whose indictment is built on his public admissions. However, Davis now claims his confession was fabricated under extreme duress. In 2008, he was targeted by a special task force led by LAPD detective Greg Kading. Facing a 25-year prison sentence, Davis was offered immunity in exchange for information. Davis alleges he was pressured into creating a narrative that implicated his late nephew, Orlando Anderson, as the triggerman. This story is further complicated by the fact that Kading was later removed from the task force amid allegations of bribing and intimidating witnesses.

In a bizarre twist, another LAPD cop from that same task force, Darren Dupri, allegedly helped broker a $150,000 deal for Davis to repeat his coerced story on the BET series “Death Row Chronicles.” By accepting this deal, Davis violated his immunity agreement, leading directly to the murder charge he now faces. His defense is simple: he lied to save himself from prison and then lied again for money, becoming the perfect scapegoat in a much larger game.

The Eyewitness vs. The State’s Narrative

While the state builds its case on Keefe D’s shaky confession, the only living eyewitness to the shooting, Suge Knight, has consistently and forcefully rejected it. From prison, Knight has stated in multiple interviews that Orlando Anderson was not the shooter. “The sad thing about it, Orlando wasn’t even the shooter,” Knight told author Michael Douglas Carlin in 2018. When asked by TMZ in 2023 if the Keefe D/Orlando Anderson narrative was correct, his answer was an emphatic “No.”

Instead, Knight has pointed the finger at a different culprit: “crooked cops.” He specifically named former LAPD Rampart officer Rafael Perez and his “crew” as being involved, alleging they were trying to kill him as well. He described the event as a “murder for hire hit” orchestrated by corrupt officers who “destroyed hip-hop.” This explosive claim shifts the motive from gang revenge to a calculated assassination with powerful forces pulling the strings.

The Death Row Takeover Conspiracy

Bodycam shows arrest of man accused in Tupac Shakur killing

Knight’s allegations feed into a more intricate and compelling theory: the murder of Tupac was collateral damage in a sophisticated plot to wrestle control of the lucrative Death Row Records empire from Suge Knight. The alleged masterminds of this “inside job” include some of the closest people to Knight: his head of security, Reggie Wright Jr. (a former Compton cop); his lawyer, David Kenner; and his ex-wife, Sharifa Knight.

The theory suggests this inner circle conspired with corrupt officers from the infamous LAPD Rampart Division, including David Mack and Kevin Gaines, who had deep, documented ties to Death Row. Sharifa Knight was having an affair with Officer Kevin Gaines, who was found with multiple Death Row credit cards in his wallet. The plan was simple: eliminate Suge Knight, and if Tupac was in the way, he would be eliminated too. When Suge survived, Plan B was enacted.

The MGM Grand fight with Orlando Anderson provided the perfect pretext. Information about Suge’s participation in the fight—a clear violation of his probation—was allegedly fed to the LAPD by his own head of security, Reggie Wright Jr. This led to Knight’s nine-year prison sentence, effectively removing him from power and placing Reggie Wright Jr. in control of the company’s day-to-day operations. During Suge’s incarceration, financial records allegedly show Wright Jr. and Kenner siphoning millions from the company and even transferring property out of Suge’s name.

A Truth Still Classified

The threads of this conspiracy are held together by the long-standing federal surveillance of Death Row. Kevin Hackie’s presence as an undercover agent confirms the FBI had an intimate, real-time view of the label’s operations, which included everything from money laundering for drug kingpins to arms trafficking. Their agents were tailing the Death Row entourage in Las Vegas that night. This makes the existence of a surveillance tape not just possible, but a near certainty.

The critical question remains: What is on that tape? If it simply confirms the Orlando Anderson theory, why has it been hidden for 30 years? The FBI’s refusal to release 97% of its Tupac files, citing “national security,” suggests the tape contains something far more damaging to the government and its law enforcement agencies. If, as Suge Knight claims, the tape shows LAPD officers carrying out a murder-for-hire, its release would trigger a scandal of unprecedented proportions.

As the trial of Keefe D approaches, the pressure to unseal these records and reveal the contents of the tape will intensify. The world is watching, no longer satisfied with the simple story of a rap beef gone wrong. The evidence now points to a deep-seated rot of corruption, betrayal, and a cold-blooded conspiracy to seize an empire, with Tupac Shakur as its most tragic victim. The truth, it seems, has been recorded; it is just waiting to be played.