SOUTH DEERING — Tierra Curry said she spent Monday with her little brother, Pierce Curry, registering him for his senior year of high school and helping him apply for a permit to learn to drive.
Curry said her little brother, the youngest of seven siblings, had plans to go to college to learn to fix car motors.
"He liked to drive them, so he wanted to learn how to work them," she said.
But early Tuesday morning, Curry said she woke up to news that her brother had been shot.
Police said Curry was in the back seat of a car in the 6200 block of South State Street about 1:30 a.m. when another vehicle pulled up alongside and someone inside opened fire.
Pierce, 17, was shot twice in his head and was taken to St. Bernard Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:58 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
Hours after her brother was killed, Tierra Curry said she was in disbelief.
"It feels like it should all be a dream," she said outside their home in the 9900 block of South Hoxie Avenue.
Curry said her brother's death has made a tough stretch for her family even worse. She said an aunt and an uncle in the family have also died this year, and in March, their grandmother died.
The loss of their grandmother hit Pierce especially hard, Curry said.
"He just felt like he should give up because my grandmother was gone, and she's the one that raised him," she said. "He loved her so much and was close to her, and he was trying to hold it together."
Pierce had left the house Monday night to go hang out with some friends. His older brother was picking him up when he was shot, family said.
Curry described her brother as a typical teen: he liked video games, football and scary movies.
"He was just a bright young man, trying to get his life on track," she said.
Curry said it is the first time a family member has been killed and said they are waiting to find out why someone would have shot her brother.
"An innocent child got his life taken," she said. "Only thing we can do is think about the good times we had because we can't bring him back.
