CHICAGO — Shortly before 8:30 a.m. Friday, Yesenia Garcia, 33, knelt down to light the candles that had been set up on the curb where long-time friend Fabain Echevarria was gunned down just hours earlier.
"He was an innocent kid," said Garcia, who learned about the shooting from her husband late Thursday night. "He was not a gangbanger, he was a good kid."
The father of a 5-year-old boy was killed across the street from his home around 8 p.m., police and family said.
He'd been shot in his head while sitting in his car in the 900 block of North Mozart Street, said Officer Amina Greer, a Chicago Police spokeswoman.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office said Echevarria, 24, of the 900 block of North Mozart Street, was pronounced dead at 8:10 p.m., officials said.
A neighbor and family friend of seven years, who wished not to be named, was watching the NCAA basketball tournament Thursday night when he noticed the reflection of police lights flashing into his window.
"I didn't hear the shots, I just saw the flashing lights," the neighbor said.
"I can't believe it, just yesterday I was helping him bring groceries into his house," the man said. "He was one of the good ones, from a good family," the man said as he wiped tears from his face.
Echevarria worked taking care of his girlfriend's grandmother four days a week, his girlfriend's mother said.
"He was a good man, he was a family man," she said through tears. "People in the community and the neighborhood knew him. He didn't deserve it."
Throughout the morning family, friends and neighbors stopped by to mourn the loss of Echevarria, giving one another hugs and leaving behind candles — all shocked by the tragedy.
"It's so sad, you can't be safe in front of your place," Garcia said. " You don't know when it's going to be your time. But when it's your time, it should be decided by the man upstairs, not by anybody on the streets."
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