A hardworking father-of-three was killed by a thief who shot him after stealing his work equipment.
Derek Cummings, 32, died on Friday in Dekalb County, Georgia, after being gunned down outside of a fire station.
His relatives told Fox5 that Cummings was doing yard work outside of a daycare on Friday when an item was stolen from his truck.
An employee at the daycare alerted Cummings, who then followed the suspect in his own car. The pursuit ended at the fire station when he was shot.
The suspect fled the scene in Cummings’s own truck. He was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
His mother, Sharon Jennings, started an online fundraiser to help her family with funeral expenses and to support his young family.
Cummings leaves behind his fiancée Jennifer Leriche and his three kids, one of them a newborn son who was just a week old.
Jennings said: ‘My son, my baby, my heart, was taken from me in the most senseless, heartbreaking way.
‘His life was stolen by thieves trying to take his lawn equipment while he was out doing honest work – cutting someone’s yard to provide for his family.’
Jennings said her son was trying to build a better life for himself, and took pride in being a new dad.
‘My grandson will never get to grow up knowing his father’s voice, his laugh, his love’, she added.
His fiancée Jennifer told Fox5: ‘The kids love him and he loved his kids, they took him too early. He was a good person. Can’t nobody say anything bad about him.
‘Whoever did it is still out there. And I want to say to them, y’all don’t know what y’all have done. Y’all don’t know what y’all took from us. That man was everything to us.’
The online fundraiser had raised over $2,000 as of Tuesday morning, with a target set at $40,000.
Tributes poured in on social media, one person said: ‘One of the kindest and funniest people I’ve ever met R.I.P Derek praying for your family especially those babies.’
Another commented: ‘Please people put your guns away! This is horrible! My heart breaks for this family.’
DeKalb County Police are investigating the theft and the shooting as they search for his killer. A description of the suspect has not been released.