Barbara Carreker clutched a picture of 18-year-old-Demetri Green, her son, the morning after he was shot and killed, reportedly for his jacket.
"The young man already took the jacket off," Carreker told Fox 2's Robin Schwartz. "The guy just started shooting anyway."
It happened around 9:30 pm Friday near East Warren and Somerset on the far East Side. Demetri and a friend were walking to the store when a man with a gun jumped out of a van and tried to rob her son's friend, Carreker says.
"He worked at a $7 an hour job. They were trying to rob him for a leather coat, " the mother adds. "He took the coat off and threw it down. They opened fire with an AK-47 and started shooting at him."
"My son just graduated from Southeastern with a 4.0," she said, choking back tears. "He was in an all city string band. He's on two CD's. He and his brother played with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra."
Demetri is at least the fifth homicide victim in Dertoit in 2013. Last year, with 386 homicides, was the most murderous year in the city since 1987.
On Thursday, another teen was shot to death on the opposite side of Detroit, the Free Press reports.
In the 8600 block of Stahelin — near the Southfield Freeway and Joy Road — a 17-year-old boy was shot and died about 9:10 p.m. Thursday after he was robbed by two men, according to a police news release. Police described the two suspects as being about six-feet tall and with slim builds.
