Chicago shooting: Navy vet shot to death while working as tow truck driver in East Garfield Park

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 27-year-old tow truck driver was killed early Friday morning while on the job.

Not only was he a U.S. Navy veteran who served his country, but he was also an expectant father.

He and his fiancée were preparing for their baby shower this weekend. The family is now devastated and trying to console one another.

To receive a call in the middle of the night from her son's friend, Ericha Lilly-Hosick knew something was terribly wrong.

"They had been on the phone when my son was shot," Lilly-Hosick said.

She immediately picked up his fiancée and drove as fast as she could to her son. But, by the time she got there, he was already gone.

"As his mother, I had to make that drive. I had to know and I had that hope that my son wasn't gone," Lilly-Hosick said.

Jack Jacobsen had just repossessed a black Land Rover in East Garfield Park, his company said, when he was ambushed by a large group of people at around 1:30 a.m.

The front windshield was riddled with bullet holes in the 3000 block of West 5th Avenue. Jacobsen was shot to death while sitting in the front seat.

"We are so far away from that lifestyle, and to lose my son to it," Lilly-Hosick said.

Jacobsen worked for Northwest Recovery out of Rolling Meadows.

Their attorney said they're trying to sort out the details of what exactly happened, as re-possessions can sometimes be very dangerous for tow truck drivers.

"We don't know if this was a random act, if it was a directed action or if it was simply car thieves that saw someone turn the keys to a very expensive automobile over," said Northwest Towing attorney Tom Glasgow. "He's a great kid. I just saw a tremendous kid who had a great personality and was always upbeat. It is such a tragic loss."

Investigators are now pulling video from a city pod camera nearby, and Glasgow said the tow truck was also equipped with several cameras.

"They provide a very wide swath of visual view for what occurs during a repossession and what happens after the repossession in order to protect our drivers," Glasgow said.

Spending Friday embracing one another, his family members, who are planning for a baby, are now also planning a funeral.

"He's got a little girl on the way and she's never going to know her daddy," Lilly-Hosick said.

Jacobsen's baby girl is due in February. What's getting the family through right now, they said, is knowing that his legacy will carry on.

Authorities said a handgun was recovered next to the victim, but police have not said if that gun was fired. It's also unclear who that gun belonged to.

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