The shooting happened early Sunday in the 7800-block of South Carpenter in Chicago's Gresham neighborhood.
"He loved basketball. That's all he did. That's why I let him go out with his friends," the teen's mother Denise Jones said.
Tears of sorrow and regret stained Denise Jones' just hours after her son became one of the latest victims of gun violence
"It's a shame because it's always someone who's not really involved in what's going on who gets shot or whatever," cousin Quentin Baker said.
Police say the 15-year-old was shot fatally after an unknown shooter's bullet went through an apartment window where the teen was a guest at another student's graduation party. Investigators say it appears Jones was not the intended target.
The shooting happened at approximately 2:15 a.m. Sunday in the first-floor unit of an apartment building. Witnesses say the shooting began inside after an altercation at the party between the party's host and at least three other men who he accused of breaking a window in his home.
"I heard like a lot of arguing. People [were] fighting up in the crib. So, I'm standing on the back porch on the phone, and the next thing I know, like, 'Bop, bop, bop,' like four shots went off," said Farris "Reggie" Chatman, who attended the party.
Several other guests say the teen was struck in the back after the gunman ran out of the apartment -- only to fire back into the party one more time.
Kevin Jones was pronounced dead at an area hospital.
"We prayed until we got the news from the doctor, and it's heartbreaking. He was a good boy," said Shalonna Jones, the victim's cousin.
The aspiring professional basketball player would have turned 16 years old next month and was a freshman at Harper High School in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood.
Jones' family says he was looking forward to spending the summer with his father and older brother who live in Tennesse.
"I thought me and my brother were going to be kicking it in Memphis. I can't see my brother no more," Kenneth Jones said tearfully.
Sunday afternoon, as Jones' grief-stricken family struggled to accept the tragedy, a mother simply remembered her son.
"It's a lot. He was quiet. He didn't bother nobody. He didn't do none of that," Denise Jones said.
So far, Calumet Area detectives say no one is in custody.
