In the autumn of 2014, a conversation about turning his life around for the sake of his son would be the last for Breond Keys, a 38-year-old man. On the morning of Friday, October 10, 2014, Keys was inside an establishment in the 1400 block of Good Hope Road, Southeast, when he was shot multiple times. Emergency services responded to a report of the shooting at approximately 11:20 a.m.
and transported Keys to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Branch immediately began an investigation into the death of the black male. Initial descriptions of the person of interest described a Black man wearing blue jeans and a dark-colored hoodie. In one report, the suspect was described as wearing all black with a ski mask and armed with a gun. The police offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
Sometime after the incident, Antwon Green was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for the death of Breond Keys. During the subsequent court proceedings, a barber who had been cutting Keys' hair just before the shooting testified. The barber recounted a conversation in which Keys expressed a desire to straighten out his life for his son, who was coincidentally coached by another employee at the barbershop.
The barber also testified that he had known Antwon Green for many years and did not believe him to be the shooter. He stated that Keys and Green had seen each other and acknowledged one another on the day of the shooting, with video footage from the barbershop corroborating this interaction. The barber did not witness the shooter's face as he was trying to get away from the gunfire when the shots rang out.
