Trail To The Truth: Who shot Stefon?

WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – Trauma does something to the brain.

It can make it hard to remember even life-altering events.

“That whole day is a blur, I mean, I remember it happening, but you don’t remember. I remember but I don’t remember,” recalled Stephanie Moore.

That day that Stephanie is talking about is when her son, Stefon Hagan was killed.

“Just after midnight at around 2am on December 19th of 2019, deputies were responding to the 1700 block of Dale Lane in reference to a shooting,” said Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sergeant Jordan Banks. He retraced his steps of that early morning. “When deputies arrived on scene, they found a single victim with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.”

What Happened on 12/19/2019? 

That Thursday evening, while most of the neighborhood was asleep, Det. Banks said Stefon wasn’t.

“Mr. Hagan, we believe, had stepped outside, either to smoke a cigarette or to prepare to get into his vehicle to go somewhere, and either startled someone, or someone was there waiting, one of the two,” Banks said.

Whoever ambushed him ran off into the night before they could be identified. Stefon staggered into the house, and a female witness, who police wouldn’t identify, made the call to police, and then a call was made to Stephanie.

“At first, I thought I was dreaming. I turned to my husband and said, ‘did somebody just say Stefon got shot?’ because I got the call and then the phone went dead, then I said, ‘did somebody just call me and say Stefon got shot, or am I dreaming?’ and he said, ‘no, your phone rang.’ But as he was telling me, my phone rang back again,” Stephanie remembered.

Stefon never lived to celebrate that Christmas or New Years or his birthday on January 10. Stephanie said every holiday since his murder has felt empty.

“Our holidays are not the same since he left. The energy is not there; he always kept the energy going, the joking going, the conversation going, whether it be about sports, food, whatever it was,” Stephanie said. “He would go from room to room to keep things going; it’s just not the same anymore.”

A Killer who Fled into the Night

Who could do this to this fun-loving father of three? Banks said Stefon didn’t have a violent past, he wasn’t involved in anything dangerous, and he had no known enemies.

“Stefon was– everybody we talked to– he was a great person. Everybody loved him, he had no known enemies that we were aware of and when wasn’t out in the streets; he wasn’t doing anything like that, it was just a lack of information,” Banks said.

But while police said there’s a lack of information in Stefon’s case, Stephanie said that doesn’t mean there is a lack of theories.

“I think somebody targeted Stefon. It was a personal attack on him; I don’t think it was a hate thing, it was a personal attack on my son, for whatever known reason. I have my theories on that,” Stephanie said.

But why would someone target a man who wasn’t tangled up in anything and who kept to himself? Banks said in the beginning, people were forthcoming with information. That, coupled with the evidence testing made for a promising case.

But at some point, the leads started to fizzle out, and investigators had more and more trouble connecting the dots that could lead to the killer.

“In my experience, and many homicide investigations we’ve handled in my time at CID, here, people come out of the word work to talk about what’s being said in the streets. Here in this case, we’ve had very limited… there’s very few that’ve talked about it; all those people we heard that we interviewed, but nobody really had any firsthand knowledge,” Banks said.

Six Years Without Stefon

The trauma that Stefon’s family has experienced since his passing really can’t be put into words. Three kids lost their father, two siblings lost their brother, and a mother lost her son. Throughout this search for justice, Stephanie said she tries to hold onto the good memories she has of her boy.

“He called me every day, for nothing, just random calls. [He] didn’t want anything, just calling, would chit chat for a few minutes, and trust and believe he’s gonna call again 3, 4 more times for the same exact thing,” Stephnie reminisced.

Stephanie will never receive another call from her son again. Now, the call she hopes to receive is from the Sheriff’s Office, telling her that they found her son’s killer.

“I want this solved for closure– the person doesn’t deserve to live their life after they shattered ours,” Stephanie said.

“I can’t imagine what she’s been going through, but it’s been hard for us because it’s been one of those ones that’s been difficult to solve, and we would really like to help the family get closure on this,” Banks added.

If you know anything about the 2019 shooting that killed Stefon Hagan, you can call in your tips to the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Office: 410-548-4891. You can remain anonymous.