Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Courtesy Moore Family
On the evening of June 29, 2006, Laray “Mookie” Moore and a friend chilled and listened to music when he got a call from his wife Natacha about their 15-month-old son, Laray Jr., recalls his mother Yvonne.
“His wife told him to go pick up the baby who was at his aunt’s apartment,” Yvonne said in a phone interview. “He was always there for his children.”
Nearly two years after his release from a 15-month prison stint on drug charges, Laray’s life was moving in a positive direction, Yvonne and other relatives told The Daily Beast. In 2005, Laray and Natacha got married. The same year, she gave birth to Junior. Around the same time, he rekindled his bond with his then-14-year-old daughter Breyona Sampson from a previous relationship.