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Akeem Moore

Age: 22

Sex: male

Date: 7 Oct 2016

Place: Eastney Road, Broad Green, Croydon, South London

Akeem Moore was shot in the head with a shotgun in a back garden in Eastney Road, Croydon as he talked to friends at about 11.25pm on Friday 7 October 2016.

Neighbours said they heard two shots and then heard Akeem Moore's friends calling out for help.

It was said that he had been shot at point blank range in an execution style shooting and that he had died instantly. Another man was also shot at the same time and required hospital treatment. Akeem Moore had been shot shortly after arriving at the property.

The police said that they thought that the man that fired the shots was black.

The gun was not found.

The police said, 'Akeem was shot in the rear of a residential house by an unknown attacker who left him for dead. We believe that Akeem went to an address in Eastney Road that evening to meet a friend, where in the rear garden he was fatally shot by a male who had entered via a side gate of the premises giving access to the garden'.

A 37-year-old man was arrested on New Year’s Eve for his murder, but later released. It was said that he was arrested after his girlfriend told the police that he had come home and asked her to wash his tracksuit because there was 'a boy's brains on it'. However, she changed her story after explaining to her counsellor that she had made the allegations against her boyfriend after 'feeling vengeful' in the 'immediate aftermath of an altercation'.

In her initial statement she had said that the man had kept her as a 'virtual prisoner' after the murder, but the court later heard that that was not true and that she had in fact spent the weekend after the murder with another lover in London.

The man denied murdering Akeem Moore, and said that ever since being arrested he had been branded a killer and had been getting gang threats. He had spent seven months in prison on remand, during which time he said that other prisoners assumed that he was guilty and would beat him. He said that he was attacked in the prison showers by five men and that he was regularly told that he would be 'punched up and stabbed up'.

He had been charged with murder, attempted murder, perverting the course of justice and possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and was due to stand trial in July 2017, but the charges were all dropped on 15 July 2017 after the Crown Prosecution Service said that there was insufficient evidence. The Crown Prosecution Service said 'The CPS was made aware of additional material relating to this case. In line with our duty to keep cases under continuous review we determined there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction based on the Code for Crown Prosecutors. We have therefore offered no evidence in court. We have also offered to meet with the family of Mr Moore to explain our decision'.

It was heard that although the woman didn't retract her statement and claims, that she had changed her story, saying that the man had paid someone £5,000 to shoot Akeem Moore, and that her 'credibility' as a witness was tarnished.

It was also heard that there were a number of other doubts about the evidence, including a number of other suspects who could not be eliminated from the investigation.

The man had known Akeem Moore through the West Croydon recording studio that he had run.

Akeem Moore had three children. He had completed a music course at Croydon College and wanted to be a rapper under the name of Tuggzy.

His funeral took place at Croydon Cemetery and was attended by about 600 people.


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