WEST ELSDON — Eight days after U.S. Army veteran Abner Garcia was gunned down on a Southwest Side street corner, those whose lives were touched by him declared him immortal.
"Abner lives!" chanted the 100-plus friends, family members and military veterans who marched to the site of the shooting bearing posters and T-shirts with Garcia's name and face.
The group walked two blocks down Pulaski Road and wrapped around a makeshift shrine that had been set up at the intersection of 52nd Street, where a group of men pulled up in a van on Aug. 13 and flashed gang signs before shooting at Garcia and his friends.
"We're mourning this tragic loss not just for our community, but for all the communities represented here," said Carlos Luna, an organizer with Chicago Veterans, to the crowd. "It shows how many people he had an impact on."
Garcia, 23, had worked alongside Luna as a mentor with Urban Warriors, a YMCA program that paired veterans with young men who were flirting with gang life.
He was one of the program's stars, Luna said.
"He met kids where they were at," he said. "He didn't tell them what to. He showed them, by example."
For Pedro Estuviar, 22, that meant morning runs with Garcia, who would show up no matter what.
Estuviar had moved into the house next door to Garcia in West Elsdon, he said, after growing up on "the wrong side" of Little Village.
"He knew I was going on a bad route, and he taught me how to better myself," Estuviar said. "He asked me where I wanted to be in 10 years: out on the streets, or providing for my family?"
"He's been a hero to the community, and he's been a brother to me," he added.
Part of the reason Luna helped organize the march, aside from honoring Garcia's memory, was to encourage more relationships like the one he'd had with Estuviar, he said.
"It doesn't matter how many cops you put out on the streets — you're not going to prevent crime unless you have people going out there showing kids that there's a better way," Luna said. "If [Garcia's killer] had that kind of person in his life, maybe Abner would still be here."
At the end of the march, a group of Army veterans presented Garcia's mother, Elizabeth Juarez, with a bouquet of flowers and a commemorative button.
"I can't describe the pain this family feels right now," Juarez said. "He was loved by so many people."
In May, Juarez's brother, and Garcia's uncle, Jesus "Chuy" Juarez, was shot dead in Pilsen.
"We need to start telling people to put the guns down," she said. "If you ever see a friend starting something he shouldn't be doing, tell them and stop them."
That message, Luna told the crowd, was to be their new mission.
"Abner was just one person, and look how many people he had this positive effect on," he said. "Imagine if we all came together and decided to do the same thing."
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