ROSELAND — A photo of Travis Perkins, cut into the shape of a headstone, hangs from a tree in front of his mother's home. The epitaph reads "R.I.P Killa Tray - Gone but not forgotten."
Perkins, 24, was killed May 9 in the first block of West 108th Place, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
His mother, Kim Underwood, doesn’t attempt to hide her son’s transgressions. In 2010, her son was sentenced to three years in prison for weapons violations, according to court records. Earlier that year, Perkins pleaded guilty to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. And in 2008, Perkins was convicted of selling marijuana, court records show.
Despite her son's troubled past, she doesn’t know who or why anyone wanted to harm him.
But on May 9, the day he died, she felt something was about to happen. Underwood said that Perkins, the father of two young kids, appeared to have a blank look in his eyes that day.
“He looked at me like he could see through me,” Underwood said.
“It’s sad,” Underwood said, as her grandchildren hollered inside the home. “They just killing each other.”
