A West Palm Beach family is heartbroken after 19-year-old Christian Tavares Jr. was shot and killed Monday night.
“He was funny, when he would laugh it was like this contagious laugh, I loved his laugh,” Tavares’ mother, Kathy Maldonado, said.
WPTV reporter Joel Lopez met with Maldonado who shared her son’s story, clinging onto one of his t-shirts, as it still smells like her son.
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” said Maldonado.
Tavares graduated from Forest Hill High School last year and was going to Palm Beach State College and was one week away from graduating and achieving his dream to be a mechanic.
“He almost made it, to be someone, finish school, his college, he had his little car that he loved, it’s just so senseless to me, I don’t understand it,” said Maldonado.
She said Tavares had just had dinner with the family and then went to hang out with his friends.
“What have you heard happened?” asked WPTV’s Joel Lopez.
“All we know is that the friend said the gun fell on the floor and he was sitting (Tavares) in the back seat and the gun went off,” recounts Tavares’ sister Veronica. “He got shot in the side here and he said take me to the hospital.”