EAST GARFIELD PARK— Steve Mabins had just left a barbershop and was on his way to a family Fourth of July party in Washington Park when he was shot and killed Thursday, his mother said.
"It's hurtful. It's a [messed] up feeling," Kandra Conley said Friday morning. "But what can I do?"
Mabins, 21, was at the barbershop with his mom when he left with her car to go to a car wash, Conley said. He was gone only 15 minutes before he was shot, she said.
Police said Mabins was shot several times in his side about 1:30 p.m. in the 600 block of South Francisco Avenue in East Garfield Park. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, and was pronounced dead there at 2:02 p.m., according to police and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Conley said her other son told her that Mabins had been shot.
"I instantly started praying and hoping everything was all right," she said.
Conley went to Stroger after the shooting.
"I was waiting on them to give me information. They came out at 2 p.m. and said, 'He didn't make it.' It just killed our spirit."
When Mabins was younger he would play sports like baseball and soccer. He liked to hang out with family and friends now, and wanted to work in construction, said Conley, 40.
He was "just a happy person" she said. She said has no idea who would want to hurt her son.
"It's messed up and it's sad. It's just so sad."
