WEST PULLMAN — A West Pullman family is mourning the loss of a 30-year-old father who was one of six people shot and killed last weekend across the city.
Da'Lon Marquis Mobley, 30, was a "kind-hearted, caring guy," said Katherine Thomas, Mobley's aunt. "He was more than a nephew, he was like my son."
"He was a father of a 10-year-old girl, just trying his best," Thomas said. Now "my niece Miracle is without any parent. Her mother died five years ago from a medical illness."
Mobley's mother, Bertina, described her son as "a family guy" who was "crazy about his daughter."
Da'Lon Mobley, of Roseland, recently started working as a construction worker for a staffing agency, his mother said.
Mobley, of the 10600 block of South State Street, was gunned down a few houses away from his aunt's Sunday in West Pullman while picking up his cellphone that he forgot the night before at his younger cousin's birthday party.
At 5:02 p.m., officers responded to a call of shots fired in the 11600 block of South Racine Avenue, where they found a man unresponsive on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds in his back, said Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police spokesman.
"He was pronounced dead on the scene. No one is in custody." Estrada said.
Bertina Mobley, 51, spoke to her son earlier that day. He let her know he would pick up his daughter who was staying at her house at 4:30 or 5 p.m. after he picked up his cellphone from his aunt's.
Five o'clock rolled around but he never showed up.
Shortly after, Bertina Mobley got a call from her sister alerting her that there was another drive-by shooting on the block and someone had been shot.
"Kathie, that's my baby, that's my Da'Lon," Bertina Mobley said. "I just knew it was him."
The tragedy has shocked family and friends, his mother said.
"He was a good guy," Bertina Mobley said. "Since he was young, Da'Lon was always willing to help anyone. He [has always been] my little helper. He helped his best friend's grandparents move from Chicago to Indiana. It took him 10 trips, back and forth. He even donated a kidney to his father. He was always willing to help, all you had to do was ask."
Since Sunday, Bertina Mobley has still been waiting for his daily calls checking in to see what she was doing.
"He always called to check in," Bertina Mobley said. "All I can do now is remember my Da'Lon. He was my little man that never left my side until now."
Thomas said she was frustrated that another senseless act of violence left her nephew dead.
"People assume that because another black man was shot in the South Side he was in a gang or a drug dealer," Thomas said. "Da'Lon was not in a gang; he was not a drug dealer. No one had a reason to do this to him. He didn't deserve to be shot like a dog and left on a slab of concrete for four hours."
The problem is the ongoing violence between gangs in the area, where it's dangerous to walk outside, Thomas said.
"He is not the first [person] to be gunned down on this block," Thomas said. "Things are getting worse and no one is doing anything about it."
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
