On the evening of April 13, 2017, a sense of normalcy in a Norfolk, Virginia neighborhood was shattered by the sound of gunfire. Keith M. Moore, a 23-year-old Black male, was found suffering from a gunshot wound at the intersection of Peronne Avenue and Lafayette Boulevard. Emergency services arrived at the scene around 10:40 p.m. and rushed Moore to a hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he died shortly after arrival.
Known affectionately as 'Byrd,' Moore was a graduate of Oscar Smith High School and was eagerly anticipating the birth of his first child. His death left his family, including his mother, father, stepfather, and numerous siblings, devastated and seeking justice.
The investigation into Moore's death moved forward, and within days, the Norfolk Police Department announced a significant development. On April 18, 2017, detectives arrested 20-year-old Lloyd E. Whitley in connection with the shooting. Whitley, a resident of the 2400 block of Lafayette Boulevard, was taken into custody without incident and held in the Norfolk City Jail without bond. He was charged with second-degree murder and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
While the immediate aftermath of the incident saw a swift arrest, the subsequent legal proceedings are less clearly documented in available online sources. One source, a crime-solving community webpage, states that a 62-year-old man was ultimately convicted of Moore's murder and sentenced to 23 years in prison. However, this information contradicts the official police report identifying the much younger Lloyd E. Whitley as the sole suspect arrested and charged. Further complicating the narrative, another news report from November 2017 details the arrest of a 62-year-old man, also named Keith Moore, in a separate Norfolk homicide case, raising the possibility of confusion between cases. The final outcome of the charges against Lloyd E. Whitley for the death of Keith M. Moore is not definitively clarified in the available online information.
