Sheldon McCormick

Foley, an African-American native of Robertson County, Texas, was shot and killed during an apparent robbery on May 26, 1983 in an alley in South-Central Los Angeles on Normandie Avenue, near Vernon Avenue. The suspect in the crime Grant Christon, 22, was later arrested by Los Angeles police. Foley's slaying was witnessed by Demetria Wallace, 19, a criminal justice major at Los Angeles City College. She cooperated with police and agreed to tell her story in court. However, she was slain by a shotgun blast fired from a passing car as she sat at a bus stop on 48th Street and Vermont Avenue the morning of November 2, 1983 before she could do so. Although charges were dropped against the defendant in a Los Angeles Superior Court preliminary hearing November 7, 1983 in the murder case due to Wallace's death, Foley's killer was later convicted of shooting to death Lamont Norwood and the attempt murder of Norwood's brother Travis at a South L.A. area pizza parlor and use of a .38-caliber handgun during the crime. Foley's murderer served nearly 31 years of a 27-year-to-life sentence in a California state prison. Christon, 54, was released from prison, paroled in October, 2015. Foley received both military honors and tributes from his fellow taxi cab drivers.