Treyhon McCurdy’s mother is still haunted by the final conversation she had with her son over the phone. The 20-year-old lost his life in a tragic incident shortly after his family celebrated his birthday, marking his accomplishments with the gift of a new car. That same vehicle became the scene of his desperate attempt to escape gunfire over the weekend.
Just a few months ago, on March 22, Alicia Warford commemorated the birth of her youngest child. But Sunday night brought devastation, as she heard the moments leading to her son’s demise over the phone.
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“He was shouting, ‘Ma! Ma! They’re shooting at me! They’re shooting at me!'” Warford recounted. “I heard the gunshots targeting my son. I urged him, ‘Get to 127th! Head to Altgeld Gardens! Can you make it?’ His response was, ‘I think I can.’
Treyhon was one of two individuals who were fatally shot in a car crash near 122nd and Harvard in West Pullman. Family members say the tragic event followed a meeting that went terribly wrong.
“He told me, ‘I just want you to know that I love you.’ Then the line went silent, and those were our last words to each other,” Warford reflected. “I got in my car, driving aimlessly, screaming and crying. I didn’t know where he was, and all the while, he lay somewhere, needing his mother.”
“He said, ‘I just want you to know that I love you.’ And the phone went dead, and that was our final words to each other, that he loved me,” Warford said. “And I got in my car and just start riding, and riding, screaming, and hollering… I didn’t know where he was at, and all along, he was laying somewhere, needing his momma.”
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office has yet to identify the second victim killed in the shooting, which remains unsolved. The family says they are planning to hold a vigil on Saturday.
“My brother was going to meet some people that he did not know. The person he was in the car with was somebody he did not know,” said Candance McCurdy, the victim’s sister. “Greed, money, envy is the root of all evil, and it’s taking too many innocent lives.”
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