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Tow Truck Driver Slain

By Chris Bentley | January 8, 2013 12:57am
 Mark Carney, 26, was shot and killed July 14 in the Pilsen neighborhood while on a call for his job towing vehicles .
Mark Carney, 26, was shot and killed July 14 in the Pilsen neighborhood while on a call for his job towing vehicles .
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Family photo

PILSEN —  Mark Carney’s size 13 footprints could be found all over Pilsen’s Boogie Park, where he spent much of his time. If he wasn’t there playing basketball or down the street at his family’s home on Peoria Street, he was towing cars — as he was the night of July 14 when he was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Carney was a fixture in the neighborhood.

“He knew everybody, their kids, even their dogs’ names,” his sister Jennifer Carney said.

His sociable and gentle nature made him an excellent sibling, she added. He was the second youngest of five siblings and was especially close with his nieces and nephews. Carney had his nieces’ names tattooed on his wrists: Kayla, now 13, and Joshua, 6.

Carney attended Juarez Community Academy High School but did not graduate. Though his learning disability made high school a struggle, his sister insisted that he avoided gang life.  

“Starting trouble and fighting were not his style,” she said.

Making ends meet, however, was. Carney did repossessions and towed cars for T&T Towing.

“When money called, Mark answered,” she said.

The night of his death, Mark answered a call from his employer about an emergency tow. On his way to meet his boss a few blocks away, Carney was shot in the 1900 block of South Sangamon.

Jennifer said her brother was always “on the go” and willing to help the family – even when it came to yard work.

“[The] last project we did together was a garden in my sister’s yard,” Jennifer Carney said. “Where his size 13 feet stomped a few flowers.”