LOGAN SQUARE — Before he was gunned down on a Logan Square street Saturday, Damian Rodriguez spent the day doing what he loved: fixing up his car with a friend and his little brother.
"He put in a lot of work, the whole day he was fixing it," said Damian's mother, Patricia Rodriguez, as she stood in front of her mother's home in the 2300 block of North Keeler Avenue.
Damian Rodriguez, 21, and Jason Seballos, 16, were killed, and Rocco Rodriguez, 18, was wounded in a shooting in the 2300 block of North Springfield Avenue before midnight Saturday, authorities said.
Patricia Rodriguez said the young men decided to take the Chevrolet Impala out for a spin after fixing it up, and that she expected her sons home early that night.
"He told me and his grandma he was going to stay home tonight," she said. "They were just driving, and these guys came out of nowhere with a gun, and my son froze. By the time he [tried to leave], they had already shot him. "
Damian and his little brother Rocco were the "best of friends," she said.
"They never left each other's side. The little guy is not taking it too good," she said of Rocco, who was briefly hospitalized with a gunshot wound to his finger.
Police said the gunman walked up and fired into their car. All three victims had documented gang ties, police said.
But Patricia Rodriguez described her son as a family man who was planning to go back to school.
"He was such a polite kid. He was like 'Thank you grandma, I love you grandma,'" she said.
He had a 6-month-old daughter named Nadiani. Next week, he was supposed to go to Wilbur Wright College to work on getting his GED, she said.
"He was just starting to go back to school again; that's why he was staying with his grandma. He had a good grandma," she said.
Patricia Rodriguez lives in Uptown, but spends weekends at Damian's grandmother's house in Logan Square.
"It's getting bad around here," she said. "They're shooting innocent people. He was just trying to better himself. You can't go nowhere in Chicago [anymore]."
Friends and family of the slain men lit candles to honor them Sunday. Patricia said she only met fellow victim Jason Seballos a couple times but found him to be a "nice and quiet kid."
The next step, she said, is to figure out where they will bury Damian.
"Who would have thought he was gonna die?"
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