Man killed in Heart of Chicago shooting that wounded infant son remembered as 'family man to the fullest'
Nov 25, 2024
A man who was killed in a shooting that also wounded his 6-month-old son in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood on Wednesday was remembered as a "family man to the fullest" in a fundraiser created to help his family. “There was nothing you couldn’t count on him for,” Daisy Alvarez, Leonardo Martinez’s sister-in-law, said on the page of a GoFundMe fundraiser created for his family. “His biggest fear was to leave them behind, and sadly, his fear has become reality.”The attack unfolded as Martinez and his 6-month old son were traveling north in the 2400 block of South Oakley Avenue at 10:45 a.m. when a blue Dodge Charger approached their vehicle and someone inside opened fire and struck them both, Chicago police said.Martinez, 35, was shot multiple times and died minutes later at a hospital. Responding officers found the 6-month-old in his car seat in the back of the vehicle with a graze wound to his neck, according to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times. As the baby was being treated in the ambulance "a fired bullet fell from his onesie," the report said. The baby was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was in good condition, officials said. A cell phone covered with bloodstains was found in the front seat. Alvarez always played pranks on Martinez, and he never got mad. "He always treated everyone with respect," Alvarez wrote. Martinez was someone with a "great personality and contagious smile." Martinez is survived by his fiancée, two sons, a daughter, and two stepchildren, according to the fundraiser page. Martinez "was a one-in-a-million man!" Alvarez wrote. "His memories will live on with everyone that knew him." The fundraiser created for Martinez has raised more than $4,200 of its $5,000 goal as of Monday evening. The blue Charger was found shortly after the shooting, and no arrests have been made, police said Monday.