BELMONT CRAGIN — Ever since Heriberto Mercado was a kid he's been accompanying his big brother, Juan, as he fixed cars around their neighborhood of Belmont Cragin.
That's what the brothers were doing Sunday when Juan Mercado, 25, was shot dead in the 2300 block of North Melvina Avenue, Heriberto said Monday.
About 6:45 p.m., the brothers had just finished working on the car for a friend who lived a few blocks over when someone drove down the block and fired three shots, the 21-year-old said.
"[Someone] just started shooting like crazy," Heriberto said. "'They got me. They got me.' He said it like five times, then threw himself on the floor.
"Bro, you're good, you're gonna make it. Talk to me,'" Heriberto screamed.
Eventually he put his brother, who was breathing heavily, into the car to drive him to the hospital, but an ambulance arrived and took him instead.
Juan was taken to Loyola Hospital in serious condition. He was later pronounced dead there, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
"As soon as they put him in the ambulance, he was already dead," Heriberto said.
Juan was a passionate neighborhood mechanic, who would go out of his way to help people with their cars. His favorite was working on Hondas, his brother said.
The brothers would watch races and work on cars together for as long as they could remember, he said.
"He always wanted me to be out there. He would come up with these crazy ideas for the cars and put in different engines," Heriberto said of his brother, a father of a 5-year-old girl and 1-year-old boy.
Juan had been devoted to his family, serving as a mentor for his two brothers to keep them away from gangs and drugs, Heriberto said.
"There's gang activity [in the area] but he wasn't involved. He prohibited [Heriberto] and his younger brother from socializing with gangs," said Maria Carreno, Juan's girlfriend.
Juan was a dedicated father, who loved taking his kids out to eat and worried tirelessly about them when they got sick, his brother said.
"Every time his kids got sick, he was out there ... he always gave them everything," Heriberto said, admitting the children were at their grandmother's house and weren't told of their father's death yet.
"It's just hard," he said.
Police said no one was in custody for the shooting, which did not appear to be gang-related.
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