Alicia Warford will never forget the sound of the wind rushing past her son’s phone as he drove for his life.
Treyhon McCurdy was only 20 years old when he was forced to trade a birthday celebration for a battlefield.
Just months ago, his family stood together to cheer for his accomplishments and gift him a brand-new car.
That same car became a rolling target on a Sunday night that shattered a Chicago family forever.
The scene at 122nd and Harvard Avenue in West Pullman told a story of pure desperation.
Rubber marks on the asphalt and a crumpled frame showed exactly where the vehicle finally gave up.
But the most haunting part of this tragedy didn’t happen on the street; it happened on a cellular signal.
“Ma! Ma! They shooting at me!” Treyhon screamed into his phone as bullets pierced the air around him.
Alicia sat on the other end of the line, her heart dropping into her stomach as the reality of the Far South Side set in.
She tried to be his GPS through the chaos, urging him to make it to the safety of the Altgeld Gardens.
“Can you make it to the Gardens?” she asked, her voice likely shaking as she prayed for a miracle.
Treyhon thought he could make it, but the shooters trailing him had other plans.
Before the line cut to a deafening silence, he made sure to say the only thing that mattered.
“I just want you to know that I love you,” he told her.
Those were the final words Alicia Warford would ever hear from her youngest child.
By the time she got into her own car and started driving aimlessly through the night, her son was already gone.
She screamed and hollered at the steering wheel, unaware that Treyhon was already lying in a wrecked car needing his mother.
Police found Treyhon and another unidentified individual dead inside the crashed vehicle.
The second victim remains a mystery to the public, a nameless casualty in a city that sees too many of them.
Candance McCurdy, Treyhon’s sister, believes her brother was lured into a trap.
He had gone to meet people he didn’t know, accompanied by a passenger who was also a stranger.
Here is the reality: “meet-ups” with strangers in the city are becoming increasingly high-risk gambles.
Candance points to greed and envy as the rot that took her brother’s life.
The family is now preparing for a Saturday vigil instead of the bright future they once envisioned for him.
West Pullman is a neighborhood where the “City Vibe” often shifts from quiet residential streets to active crime scenes in seconds.
The streets near 127th and the Altgeld Gardens housing project are now marked by another senseless loss.
Investigators are still combing through evidence, but the shooters remain at large and the case remains unsolved.
This murder serves as a grim reminder for every resident in Chicago about the dangers of meeting unknown parties.
If you are selling an item or meeting someone from the internet, always choose a designated “Safe Exchange Zone” at a local police station.
Never go alone to a secondary location, especially late at night in areas with limited visibility.
Your life is worth more than any transaction, a lesson the McCurdy family learned in the most painful way possible.
Treyhon was a young man with a supportive family and a new car that symbolized his potential.
Now, that potential is buried under the weight of a violent night in West Pullman.
The community is left to wonder when the shooting will stop and when a mother’s phone call will finally be safe to answer.
As the vigil approaches, the silence on Alicia Warford’s phone remains the loudest sound in her home.