During one of many conversations with a friend he counseled and hired, an Omaha priest delivered the 24-year-old a simple message:
“If I ever wake up some morning and hear you're a victim of violence, I will be so sad,” the Rev. Tom Fangman recalled telling Qjuan Moore. “Because you're a very good person.”
After Sunday's mass, Fangman learned he'd lost his young friend — the helpful, smiling maintenance worker at the Heart Ministry Center.
“From the get-go, I just knew there was something pretty special about him,” Fangman said.
Moore was one of three men shot and killed Sunday in what Omaha police described as two gang-related shootings. Authorities publicly identified the men Monday afternoon.A second victim shot with Moore was Jonas L. Amerson, 23. Slain in a shooting earlier Sunday was Paul Richards, 19. A police source said the men were not in the same gang.
The two shootings do not appear related, but police still were investigating, said Lt. Darci Tierney, an Omaha police spokeswoman.
The first shooting took place about 1:30 a.m. Sunday near 45th and Nicholas Streets.
Officers were responding to a report of shots fired at an apartment building at 4527 Nicholas St. when they found two men with gunshot wounds.
Both were taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where Richards was pronounced dead. Another shooting victim, David A. Thomas, 29, of Omaha, was treated and released.
Thomas declined to comment Monday, saying only, “We cool.”
Just before 2 a.m. Sunday, Amerson and Moore were in a car near 42nd and Browne Streets that crashed into a north Omaha yard. Both men were shot.
Amerson was pronounced dead at the scene and Moore at Creighton. Tierney said at least two people escaped from the car.
Moore's family members told co-workers that Moore gave Amerson a ride. Amerson had been in a fight on Saturday, they said. They believe Sunday's shooting might be related.
A neighbor near the shooting scene said he heard people argue in his driveway shortly after a car crashed through his neighbor's yard. The man, who asked not to be identified, said he was watching a movie, so he didn't know whether he heard shots or noise from his TV.
He said he heard arguing as one man asked where his phone was. He then heard his trash cans knocked over. He didn't think much of it until he saw police arrive a short time later.
The next day, he saw what appeared to be several blood smears on his garage.
Each of the three men slain, including Moore, had lengthy criminal records.
Amerson served stints in jail for offenses that included 180 days in May 2003 for carrying a concealed weapon; 30 days for assault and battery in May 2005 and 120 days for trespassing in August 2007.
In April 2005, he was the victim of a shooting at 30th and Decatur Streets.
Richards served 74 days in jail for providing false information in January 2007. He originally was charged with being an accessory to a felony.
Moore served 90 days in jail in 2004 for possession of a controlled substance, crack. He was arrested in January on suspicion of drunken driving and driving while under suspension.
But co-workers and friends said Moore was more than his rap sheet suggested. His jail time changed him, they said.
“He told me that he had so much time to think about what he wanted to do with his life — and what he didn't want to do,” Fangman said. “He just realized that he wanted to do good.”
Moore wanted to finish his GED, and often told the priest he wanted to be a good example for his young sons. Moore's fourth boy was born last week, co-workers said.
Moore came to the Heart Ministry Center as a part-time worker in the summer of 2009. He showed up for work 10 minutes early, Fangman said, never complained, took pride in his job and brought Valentine's Day cards to his co-workers.
He was trying his best to overcome his past, said Yolanda Robinson, the center's executive director.
“He did his time, and he learned his lesson,” she said. “It takes a lot for an individual to decide to make that kind of change and stick to it.”
“That's what's so hard about it, that he was working so hard to get past it.”
Anyone with information on the shootings is asked to contact the homicide unit at 444-5656 or Crime Stoppers at 444-STOP (7867). Information also can be submitted by sending a text message beginning with “OPD” and your tip to CRIMES (274637). Or tips can be submitted online at www.OmahaCrimeStoppers.net.
World-Herald staff writer Bob Glissmann contributed to this report.
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