Friday would have been Anthony Moore’s 30th birthday. Instead, his family is having memorial services for him at a church on Aurora’s East Side.
Moore died after crashing into a tree May 3 on the city’s West Side, a late night event police said they are still investigating.
A viewing and wake from 10 to 11 a.m. at New Community Baptist Church will be followed by services from 11 a.m. to noon at the church, 900 E. New York St. He will be buried at River Hill Memorial Cemetery at 1650 River St. in Batavia, said Moore’s aunt, Brenda Handley.
After the burial, family and friends will gather at Prisco Community Center in Aurora, and the community is invited, Handley said.
Handley said the family is thankful for the support they have received since Moore’s death last week.
“We appreciate what people have done and said,” Handley said.
Moore left behind a fiancee and two young children who he loved more than anything, said his mother, Cheryl Moore, describing her late son as smart, helpful and talented.
Handley and Cheryl Moore said Anthony left a relative’s birthday party shortly before 11 the night he crashed, and the family is determined to get answers about what happened.
Police said Moore, 29, of the 1900 block of Fescue Drive in Aurora, had a loaded 9 mm handgun with an extended magazine inside the car when he crashed, but declined to specify where they found the gun.
Moore was westbound on Kenilworth Place at 11:05 p.m. May 3 in a 2017 Nissan Murano SUV, allegedly driving “at a high rate of speed” with no other people in the car, police said in a statement posted on Facebook. The SUV struck a tree about 60 feet off the road, near where Kenilworth dead ends west of Kingsway Drive, the statement read. Police said it is unknown what caused Moore to crash.
While no one reported seeing the crash, a resident in the 2000 block of Kenilworth heard it, broke the SUV’s windows in an attempt to help and found Moore inside just before first responders arrived, police said.
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Amie Riggs said Moore was breathing when she and her partner found him, and that she called 911 and prayed with him until police got there.
It helps knowing someone was trying to comfort her son in his last moments, Cheryl Moore said.
“That’s the best thing of all, to know she was there and that she prayed for him,” Moore said.
Anthony Moore was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:29 p.m., police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said. Ferrelli said paramedics treated him unsuccessfully, but did not elaborate on what they did.
Police said they don’t know why Moore was driving in the area or if he had been chased by someone in another vehicle, and have not determined whether drugs or alcohol were a factor.
Preliminary autopsy results indicate Moore died of blunt force trauma from the crash, which caused head and internal injuries, Kane County Coroner Rob Russell said.
Toxicology samples were taken, and those results are pending, Russell said.
An intersection camera in the area apparently was working but did not capture any activity related to the crash, Ferrelli said in an email.
“We continue to ask anyone with information to come forward,” Ferrelli said.
Twitter @hannahmleone