Slain Alpha Frater Pleas Moody, 23, ‘at wrong place at wrong time’
A 23-year-old man was killed and his cousin wounded as they sat in a car in Bellwood, police say.
It was the second fatal shooting in the west suburb in the last three days.
Pleas Anthony Moody, 23, was in a car in the 400 block of 22nd Avenue when someone walked up and fired shots into the car at about 2:40 p.m. Monday, hitting him and his cousin, according to police and family.
Investigators believe the gunman may have gotten into a getaway vehicle, according to Bellwood police Cmdr. Rodney Boyd.
Chanel Moody said her brother, who went by the name Tony, was the youngest of three siblings and was “a very good kid.”
“He wasn’t a gangbanger at all,” she said. “He was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Chanel Moody said their 24-year-old cousin was with Moody. He underwent surgery but she didn’t have further details on his condition.
Tony Moody grew up in Maywood and went to Proviso East High School his freshman year, but his family sent him to live in Atlanta with relatives to get away from violence in his neighborhood.
“I didn’t want my brother to be a statistic,” Chanel Moody said.
He graduated from high school there and went to Indiana State University in Terre Haute, Ind., where he studied sports management and was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, his sister said.
For two summers, she said, Moody helped coach football at Proviso East. Aaron Peppers, the former head coach at Proviso East, said Moody was “an unbelievable kid” who was pursuing a career as a full-time football coach.
“He wanted to be an inspiration in other’s lives,” Peppers said.
Peppers said he coached Moody in Pop Warner football, where he was “the smallest kid on the field but had the biggest heart.”
“I told all the kids to play like Moody,” Peppers said.
After graduating from Indiana State in 2009, Moody returned to the area, working part-time as a fan photographer at Cubs and White Sox games, his sister said.
A few months ago, Moody moved in with his sisters in Villa Park, again due to violence in his hometown.
But he continued to hang out with people like his cousin, who has a criminal record, Chanel Moody said.
Records indicate the cousin has several prior arrests and convictions for unlawful use of a weapon, receiving a stolen vehicle and aggravated fleeing from police.
“He couldn’t turn his back on” his cousin, Chanel Moody said. “I always told him, ‘Please, you know what he’s into.’ “
On Saturday night, a 25-year-old man was found shot to death in the 400 block of 25th Avenue in Bellwood.
