Keith Gibson was born in 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the only child of 15-year-old Christine Gibson and an unidentified father who abandoned the family shortly after his birth. Raised in an impoverished neighborhood by his mother and grandparents, Gibson grew up in a troubled environment. His mother went on to build a successful career, earning degrees in social science and working as a supervisor at a nonprofit organization, but Gibson showed little interest in education, dropping out of school and spending much of his youth on the streets. During his teenage years he began stealing and was repeatedly arrested for theft and parole violations, amassing nine prosecutions between the mid-1990s and 2008. Relatives reported that he displayed signs of mental instability and aggression.

In 2008, at age 26, Gibson committed his first known homicide during a robbery in Edgemoor, Delaware, shooting and killing 36-year-old Stanley Savon Jones with the help of accomplices. Arrested that September, he was convicted of manslaughter and unlawful possession of a firearm in 2010 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. After serving more than 12 years, he was paroled in June 2020, but within months violated his parole through fighting with other offenders and was returned to prison. Released again in December 2020 under strict conditions, he was required to remain in Delaware, meet with his parole officer weekly, and observe a curfew.

In January 2021 Gibson left Delaware without authorization and returned to Philadelphia, violating his parole. On January 28 he entered the Al Madinah Traders store in the Germantown neighborhood, shooting and killing two customers, 50-year-old Eric Flores and 42-year-old Roy Caban. Less than two weeks later, on February 8, he went to his mother Christine’s workplace in East Falls and shot her once in the head, killing her instantly. Surveillance footage placed him at the scene, and Christine had previously told relatives that if anything happened to her, her son would likely be responsible. While under suspicion, Gibson was taken into custody for the parole violation but served only 31 days, after which a judge allowed him to relocate to Philadelphia under supervision. On May 15, 2021, Gibson entered a Metro by T-Mobile store in Elsmere, Delaware, dragged 28-year-old clerk Leslie Liceth Ruiz-Basilio to the back, shot her in the head, and stole money, phones, and her SUV. On June 5, he approached 41-year-old Christine Lugo as she opened a Dunkin’ Donuts in Philadelphia’s Fairhill neighborhood, forced her inside at gunpoint, took $300, and shot her in the head. The next day in Wilmington, Delaware, he shot and killed 42-year-old Ronald Wright during a street robbery and over the following two days robbed three more victims, one of whom survived a gunshot wound by pretending to be dead.

On June 8, 2021, Gibson robbed a Rite Aid in Wilmington, where the clerk hid a GPS tracker among the stolen cash. Police quickly located and arrested him, recovering the revolver used in several murders, body armor, drugs, and stolen property. He confessed to the Delaware murders and robberies, saying he killed for money. In October 2023 he was tried in New Castle County, Delaware, for the murders of Ruiz-Basilio and Wright and associated crimes. Surveillance footage, forensic evidence linking his weapon to the killings, testimony from surviving victims, and stolen property found in his possession secured his conviction on November 14, 2023. In March 2024 he was sentenced to seven life terms without parole plus 296 years. Gibson remains incarcerated in Delaware, awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania for trial in the murders of Flores, Caban, Lugo, and his mother.