Elderly Minister Hit, Killed After Walking Into Fast Lane of Freeway

An 84-year-old minister, who neighbors say was easily disoriented because of his age, was killed Monday when he walked into the fast lane of the Santa Ana Freeway and was struck by an oncoming vehicle, officials said.

Horace Moore of Southwest Los Angeles died of multiple traumatic injuries after walking into the southbound traffic lanes, according to officials of the county coroner’s office and the California Highway Patrol.

Moore was in the fast lane, apparently trying to cross the freeway just south of Greenwood Avenue, when he was struck, CHP Officer Sandra Patterson said.

The driver of the vehicle, 20-year-old Kenneth Noyons, was not cited, according to officials.

While investigators tried to figure out why and how Moore wound up on the freeway, residents of the neighborhood where Moore lived said that the elderly minister--pastor of Christ Community Truth Church in Los Angeles--often had become lost or disoriented during the last few months.

“He would just get lost. That’s why he didn’t drive anymore,” recalled Alma Lockhart, who lived across the street from Moore and his wife, Thelma. “He drove out towards Riverside and Moreno Valley, and the police would have to bring him back home.”

Moore’s memory lapses sometimes got so bad that he would get confused and “miss his driveway,” Lockhart continued. “He’d turn into any driveway he could find, and then he’d back up and find his own place.”

Moore had been pastor of the church, now located on Normandie Avenue, for more than 50 years. Members of the congregation had recently begun to pick up Moore and his wife to take them to service, Lockhart said.

“She took the keys away,” said Lockhart, referring to Moore’s wife, who walks with crutches because of a bone ailment. “The last few months she was having to take care of him and herself. Before that, he did a lot for her.”

Thelma Moore, in a brief interview, said her husband did not have Alzheimer’s disease.

“He was (just) losing his memory as people tend to do when they get older.” She declined to comment further.

Lockhart said she had heard that Horace Moore was visiting another church the night he was killed.

“They told me that he had gone up to put money in the collection plate, and he just kept on out the front door,” she said. “They kept waiting for him to come back. And he never did.”