freeholdvoice.proboards46.com/index.cgi?board=anythingfreeholdborough&action=post&thread=3286&page=1FREEHOLD — Investigators said they are following some leads in the Saturday morning homicide of Rodney Keys, 39, of Asbury Park.
Keys was gunned down in a parking lot opposite the Elks lodge on Throckmorton Street and died a short time later after a friend drove the mortally wounded man to the borough police headquarters a short distance away, police said.
The friend also was wounded, treated for his injuries and released Saturday from Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, authorities said.
His name is being withheld by police for investigative reasons, detectives said.
Meanwhile, the family of the slain man said they have been told that the killing may be linked to a dispute Keys had with another man at the Elks lodge about a week ago.
Monmouth County First Assistant Prosecutor Peter E. Warshaw Jr. would say only that the investigation is progressing.
"It would be premature to make any other comment," he said Sunday. "We are following all logical avenues of investigation."
Keys' family said the killing came as a shock to them.
While acknowledging he had convictions for armed robbery, aggravated assault and drug offenses, his sister Trina Keys said he had put his criminal past behind him.
Trina Keys said her brother had "started to turn his life around" after he finished a seven-year prison term in 2004.
"He was trying to get his feet on the ground again," she said. "He wanted to start his life over and concentrate on his kids."
Trina Keys said her brother had a 16-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son he was trying to support.
"Yes, he had dealt drugs," she said. "But he was one of those people on the street who never hurt anyone. Anyway, he had left all that. He had given that up. He said he knew that wasn't the way to go."
She said her brother worked as a telemarketer before getting his current job in construction about a year ago.
Neither she nor police would say what the argument that may have led to the killing was about.
Investigators have told the Keys family that they have two witnesses to the killing, Trina Keys said.
Police have asked anyone with information about the case to call Monmouth County Prosecutor's Detective Michael Magliozzo at (800) 533-7443 or Freehold Detective Michael Giglio at (732) 462-1234.
