A stray bullet took away his dad. Another one ended his bright future – and his life

Levi Moody had a gift.

He could make people laugh. He could entertain. He could draw the folks in his community — often marred by poverty and plagued by violence — into another world built on hope and promise.

“If you were ever in his presence, you’d know it,” said his mother, Veronica Thompson. “He was a comedian. … Ever since he was a baby he was this way.”

Gunfire stole the laughter last Saturday when 19-year-old Levi Herman Moody was struck down by a bullet that loved ones say was never intended for him. When the gunfire ceased, Moody was found lying on Freemont Road in the Freemont community of Longs.

Thompson said he was barely breathing as her cousin rushed to his side and tried to get him to hold on with the words “your momma’s coming; your momma’s coming.”

Moody was a promising athlete and scholar, but he grew up in a corner of the world that offered more tragedy than promises.

But Moody was going to be the one to make it, friends said. This star of the football field, the guy who graduated with honors, scored a college scholarship and stood up for others, he was going to be the game changer.

“There was so much hope that we had in him and for him and … for the community that he was going to be that representative, that he’s going to get out,” said Pastor Andy Anderson of The Overflow Fellowship Church in Little River. “He’s going to get out of that cycle of tragedy.”

The rise of a star

When others were selling drugs to earn a living and pointing guns in power plays to settle arguments, Moody was scoring touchdowns.

His mother “was his No. 1 fan, but he had probably hundreds if not a thousand No. 1 fans on the highlight reels,” Anderson said.

Moody was drafted to play junior varsity football for Loris High School when he was still in middle school, according to Moody’s great, great aunt Bessie Hegger.

Once he got to high school, he was pulled onto the varsity roster.

Loris High School football coach Jamie Snider said Moody “was obviously a tremendous football player for us. Huge personality. Big smile. Big laugh.”

“There are not many kids that are starting tailbacks as well as starting on the defensive line at the same time,” Snider said.

Moody’s mother made it to every game, bringing noise makers, pompoms and treats to hype up the crowd with loud cheers. Thompson never could let the stands be quiet. The Loris Lions needed to hear them roar, she said, to keep their spirits up. And the spirits of the crowd soared with every Moody touchdown.

“It seemed like he was not only running for himself or playing for himself because he could do about anything, … but he was taking you and the community on a GoPro kind of ride,” Anderson said. “I think he ran the football or played football or smiled to entertain, to invoke an emotion and to bring people along.”

Moody was the shining star hundreds looked up to, but even he wasn’t immune to the quicksand of violence he walked through in the northern part of Horry County. The type of quicksand that has pulled so many young men into early graves tugged at the soles of his shoes too. Just like his father.

Levi Moody Sr. was killed by an errant bullet in January 1998. He, too, had played football at Loris High School. He, too, had a way about him, a charisma.

The second Levi Moody was 3 months old when his father was killed. Troy Riggins, who pulled the trigger in that case, was gunned down near his mother’s home on Pine Needle Drive in the Freemont community a couple of years later. Last year, Riggins’ family lost another member when his younger brother, 20-year-old Terrance Wilson, was shot and killed at a club around the corner.

Day of violence

Last Saturday, police say 19-year-old Devonta Edward Williams was firing a semi-automatic handgun randomly down Freemont Road when Moody was struck. Witnesses say Williams was enraged by another man who owed him money.

Much like his father’s tragic death, the shooter wasn’t aiming for Moody.

“As far as the young man that took his life, he really did not mean to do that. He was doing something wrong to someone else and Levi was just caught in the crossfire of it,” Thompson said. “I hate it for all of the families that were involved with this situation.”

Thompson says she forgives Williams.

Horry County police have responded to more than nine shootings in the Longs area this year. Three resulted in deaths. Four people were injured in multiple shootings that erupted Saturday in the Wampee and Freemont communities of Longs.

A 26-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were injured in the shooting on Freemont Road. Two others were injured when multiple shots were fired in at least two gunfights that broke out at The G Spot nightclub on S.C. 90.

“There is a problem in Longs and we are aware and working to bring the area some relief,” said Lt. Raul Denis of the Horry County Police Department. “Chief (Joe) Hill has met with community leaders and stakeholders and plans to expand our presence in that area, as well as making other efforts to help reduce the incidence of crime in that community.”

A wrong turn?

Friends say Moody was in the wrong place at the wrong time Saturday.

The young man seemed to have a bright future ahead of him as he left his old haunts behind and started at Limestone College on a scholarship last fall. But trouble came in February.

Moody was arrested and accused of robbing a fellow Limestone College student at gunpoint on Feb. 26. He was expelled from school.

Moody gave his mother a different account of what happened. Thompson said he told her a boy from his first semester stole his bookbag while he was playing basketball and he took it back from the young man when he saw he had it in February. Two days later he was charged with armed robbery.

Back home, Moody was arrested again on a petty larceny charge in North Myrtle Beach on July 1, although the charge never made it to court.

Thompson said she told her son, this is “not the end for you. When we get all this mess straightened out, you’ve got a story to tell. You can help younger people. You can help them. A lot of people fall short of themselves. I want you to stand up, say what you did, whatever was wrong and just teach people from there not to go there.”

Family members were confident Moody would shine again and return to college. Then Saturday came. Hopes were dashed.

“There’s a collective sadness, but … what I’m afraid of is that this may have become commonplace, so commonplace that that’s the way it is and every year or every three to six months we’re going to have one of these funerals,” Anderson said.

Thompson, Anderson, the police department and several others throughout the community are determined to not let that happen.

“No parent should have to bury their child,” Thompson said. “At this point I just want our community to pull together as a whole because we’ve got so many youth in our community with nothing to do and when you’ve got nothing to do, something’s going to happen from behind.”

Thompson says she hopes people will remember the good of her son and not his last few mistakes. Mistakes define moments in time not the totality of a young man’s life and character, Anderson added.

“This gun violence and this violence in our respective communities has got to cease,” Anderson said. “We’ve got to stop losing young hopefuls and their families have to stop hurting this way.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 5:57 PM with the headline "A stray bullet took away his dad. Another one ended his bright future – and his life."