Thursday, October 1, 2026
More than 300 family members, friends and residents gathered on Feb. 3 at the Christian Light Missionary Baptist Church for the funeral service of Shakur “Fred” Moore, a 17-year-old high school student who died suddenly while playing basketball at the Martin Luther King Center on Jan. 27.
At the service, MLK staff and high school students and administrators joined Moore’s family, including his mother, Nicole Jessup. The church was filled with people standing against the walls and crowding the lobby, all in attendance to honor the memory of a teenager who left an indelible mark in the community.
“It was sad,” said James Hodge, the MLK Center’s acting chairman. “But it was a celebration of life and a celebration of us thanking God that we had an opportunity to meet such a great young man.”
Hodge said that many took the opportunity to speak of Moore at the service, including friends and Eric Krywe, head JV basketball coach at Long Beach High, and Myrnissa Stone, executive director of the MLK Center. Moore was remembered as a promising athlete, and a person who was always willing to help others.
Also on hand were the Long Beach High School JV and Varsity basketball teams. All of the players wore headbands featuring “21,” which was Moore’s jersey number. In a moving moment, several student athletes presented the family with a headband in tribute of Moore, Hodge said.
Hodge said the MLK center would be creating a scholarship in Moore’s name. In addition, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) helped to secure funds for a defibrillator at the MLK center after the tragic incident.
In addition to Jessup, Moore is survived by his father, Darryl Moore, who lives in South Carolina, two brothers, DaShawn Moore, 18, and Jalen Griffin, 8, and three sisters, Felicia and Darien Jessup, 22 and 15, and Alexus Moore, 14, who lives in South Carolina. Moore was buried at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale on Feb. 4.
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