Army vet fatally shot after restaurant confrontation

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A confrontation at a South Side restaurant ended with the fatal shooting of a 39-year-old Army veteran.

Gabriel Stevens was shot Monday night in the 7600 block of South Hoyne in the Gresham neighborhood.

Stevens' mother received the dreaded call Monday night that her son had been shot.

"Somebody said, 'he's gone,'" said Viola Ivory, the victim's mother. "Oh god, help me, I know this is not real. I just seen my son and he was smiling and happy to see me."

Police confirm that Stevens was riding his bicycle in the 7600 block of South Hoyne when a red auto pulled up, the offender exited the vehicle and shot Stevens several times.

"The only thing I could see was my son, laying there on the ground," Ivory said.

Stevens served in the Army and National Guard for five years. He was the valedictorian of his high school class. His mother says that she learned her son got into an argument with someone at a restaurant Monday night and was on his way home when he was gunned down.

"It is almost safer to serve this country in the military, you can make it home, versus living out on the streets," said Sharon Stevens, the victim's sister-in-law.

The family wants the offender behind bars.

"Get him off the streets and save some other child's life," Sharon Stevens said. "Some other mother won't have to sit here and talk about burying her child that didn't even see 40."