Killaa K’s Last Strike

On Sunday, February 19, Orlando rapper Keith Melvin Moses, also known by his rapper name Killaa K, was not the same young man his family knew. Gathered for a family dinner, they convened as they have for years, sharing food and conversation. But Keith was detached. 

“He was just quiet and like, usually he would interact with the family members, but he was kind of off to himself and just mumbling. Mumbling and pacing. He'd never done that. Pacing and looking at the floor,” said his cousin, who is known by the nickname Trap.

By now, we all know what happened three days later.

Trap remembers when Keith was born nineteen years ago. Trap is an older cousin, more like an uncle in many ways: “Me and his dad grew up together, like, same house, slept in the same bed as kids.” 

“Right before Keith was born, a kid named Melvin Holland was killed by the sheriff's department,” said Trap. “His mom was kin to Melvin. [She is] Melvin's cousin. So when Keith was born, they gave him the middle name Melvin.”

So it caught Trap’s attention when on Sunday, Keith mumbled, “They probably gonna try to kill me like they did Fat Boy.”

“Fat Boy is what we used to call Melvin. I was like ... why are you saying that? You didn't even know him. Like, you weren't even born when this happened. So, you know, to watch the body cam video, ‘Oh, they're killing me. They're killing me.’ Sarah, this was a big mental health issue,” Trap explained. “There was no reason for him to just go on a shooting rampage. … [He] never showed us – his dad, his mom, any of the family members – nothing violent, nothing. I can't even remember a argument or squirmish between his sisters and brothers. Never.”

Charged with first-degree murder, to which he has pled not guilty, Keith has been held at Orange County Corrections on Vision Boulevard. Trap says he’s on the fifth floor. The psych ward.

Were there signs that he was struggling with his mental health?

“Not until a few days ago,” said Trap. “You know, he got into some scrimmages with the law. We attacked that head-on. Like, hey kid, you ain't gotta do this. The men, some cousins, his dad, well, we sat him down like, look, you don't have to be out here doing this stuff. You don't have to go mess with anybody else and stuff. We can, as a family, take care of you in whichever way you want to go. You want to go back to school? We can get you back in school. You wanna start a business? We can help you start a business. But it came up, [he said] I wanna rap. I like to rap.”

Keith was roommates with Hotboii for a while. They lived in Pine Hills where both grew up. “He lived with Hotboii. So when Hotboii got his big break a few years back, that was the inspiration for him. Like, ‘Oh shit, Hotboii made it. I can make it, too. So that's what really drove him to the studio,” Trap recalled.

Another one of Keith’s cousins, the same one driving the vehicle when by all accounts Keith shot and killed 38-year-old ​​Natacha Augustin, offered to fund the build-out of a recording studio where Keith could make music. 

The studio came to life in an upstairs commercial space, “and ever since 2018, [he] just pretty much been in that studio trying to record and we felt that like just having him up there was, that was all we wanted. Get him off the streets and get him interested in something,” said Trap. “And if he bring his friends up, he would always bring up, you know, three or four other kids up with him from the neighborhood, great. Bring as many as you want. All y'all come in here and rap.”

From the family’s vantage point, Keith was doing well. Their context was the young Keith who every day had run back and forth between his father and grandmother’s house with all his cousins, surrounded by love. Young Keith whose father – a business owner – has ample means to care for his children, and does. Young Keith whose mama lives a short walk away, who he saw frequently, said Trap.

Between Sunday, February 19 and Tuesday, February 21, Keith became more agitated, said Trap. Visiting his grandmother on Tuesday evening, Keith spoke words that frightened her, and she told him he had to leave the house. Trap also says that Keith, who indulged in marijuana but showed no signs of addiction or serious drug use, had revealed to his mother that he had overdosed two weeks prior. Trap did not know what the substance was at the time of the interview. Whatever substance it was, the family has conversed about whether the overdose could have triggered an altered mind state.

The Keith that paced during the family dinner, the Keith that scared his mother, the Keith that roamed the street mumbling the morning of February 22 and attracted the concern of his cousin who was driving by – “[He] was riding down Hastings and he sees him walking down the street. He's walking aimlessly. Right? He said, ‘Hey, cuz. What you doing? Get in, man.’” – this new Keith was another person. Another person whose persona and actions the family can hardly digest.

“Everybody's left their house and gone elsewhere. The memories of him, like a lot of stuff around there reminds them. I went over last night and cleaned up [his dad’s] house like, and packed up some of his stuff and … it's hard. It's hard,” said Trap.

Are Keith’s family members going to visit him? 

“We haven't had any contact with him. I don't know if he's come back to his right mind or if there will be a time he'll come back and be like, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ I don't know if this is a temporary thing or, you know, none of us do. And that's what we're wondering. Like, will he ever like come back and realize what the hell he did? Because this, this is not him. … Nobody's even mentioned seeing him. … We are more concerned with the victims,” said Trap.

The victims who lost their lives on Wednesday are Natacha Augustin, 38, T’yonna Major, 9, and Dylan Lyons, 24. So far as we know right now, there is nobody to blame but Keith for Natacha’s death, but accountability may reach further in the deaths of T’yonna and Dylan.

Here’s why.

News reports state that Keith fled the scene after Natacha’s murder.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina confirmed himself as the source of this information that Keith fled by retweeting this tweet:

But there is no evidence that he fled. There is also no evidence we’ve seen so far that police carefully canvassed or secured the area, or that they looked for Keith in any serious manner.

MyNews13 stated, “Deputies had cleared the scene of the morning shooting, but returned five hours later when the Spectrum News 13 crew, and a woman and child in a nearby home, were attacked.”

The five hours that transpired between police visits are a mystery. Keith’s family members say that as of Wednesday morning, he was known to be barefoot in black Nike slides, and shuffling along awkwardly. They are unaware of any running or fleeing.

Trap thinks he was in a house close to the scene of the first shooting – the one where T’yonna Major lived.

“We don't know if he went in that house and killed [her] right away and just sat in the house and was looking out the blinds because he watched the whole scene right there. My cousin was there the whole time. He watched everything right there. So when the news reporters get there, he's already there. The police do not canvas the area. They never do in black neighborhoods. They just scrape up the bodies and keep it moving. Had they canvased the area, that reporter would still be alive,” said Trap. “I believe, and this is just an assumption, he saw that [news] truck pull up. He probably thought that was the police or something. … . I don't think he knew it was a news reporter or nothing like that. Okay. He thought maybe he had to shoot them to get away. He never left the scene.”

West Orlando resident and activist Shan Rose said, “The thing now is because a news reporter was killed and it was a white news reporter that was a UCF student, it's the only reason why [the story is] running every five seconds.”

“The police consistently fail to canvas in black communities,” she said, recalling a 2020 shooting. “There was a kid who was murdered on the front porch while he was drinking a Capri Sun. After the shooting, we came out and canvassed Holden Heights. The police didn’t do it.”