Deonte Hoard, Urban Prep student, killed in South Deering shooting

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A senior at Urban Prep Academy was shot and killed while walking in his South Deering neighborhood Monday night.

Urban Prep is hugely successful at getting inner city young men into four-year colleges. Deonte Hoard, 17, was going to be one of them, but he was gunned down while walking to a store Monday night.

"He just loved playing basketball. He was going to be my Derrick Rose," said Ebonie Martin, the victim's mother.

Hoard was shot in the chest and killed on the corner of 106th and Oglesby around 7:20 p.m. Monday night. His mother said he was on his way to the store with a friend when a black SUV pulled up and opened fire.

Hoard was a senior at Urban Prep Academy and on the basketball and track teams. Martin says her son was so talented, several colleges were scouting him. Hoard would have turned 18 in a week.

At a candlelight vigil Tuesday night, dozens of his family and friends gathered to share stories and honor his life.

"So we have to learn to love each other as a people, and love each other as we love ourselves. And that's an important factor in life," said Naomi Ruth Hoard, victim's aunt.

In a statement, school officials said: "We will remember a young man, full of promise and potential, well-liked by teachers and friends, and loved by his family." The school plans to honor Hoard in the coming weeks.

"I used to drop him off at home because I was scared of something like this happening," said Dillon Howard, one of Hoard's teammates.

His family says Hoard was mistakenly targeted. They said they just want answers and for the violence to end.

"And if you know anything, I ask you to speak, to just speak up," Martin said.

The 23-year-old man who was shot with Hoard is doing OK. No one has been charged, police said.