Samuel Walker Sr. barely had time to mourn the loss of his 13-year-old son, Samuel Walker Jr., before his own life was snatched from him.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the elder Walker was shot on the 4100 block of West Crystal Street in Chicago a mere two days before “Lil Sam,” as his son was affectionately known, was to be buried—six days after the boy was killed in a drive-by shooting.
Lil Sam’s mother is hoping to arrange for the two to be celebrated at a joint funeral.
The younger Walker was killed last Friday just before 6 p.m., the Tribune notes, in a drive-by that injured six other victims. Lil Sam would have attended Manley High School for the upcoming school year.
According to family, the older man was grappling with the grief of losing his son, his firstborn child. “He was heartbroken, but he wasn’t questioning God’s timing,” cousin Victoria Chamilien told the Tribune about the 34-year-old. “He was hurt as any father would be. Lil Sam was his first son and child.”
“It hurts so much because we grew up together,” Chamilien added about her cousin. “He was lying on the ground in a gangway, shot in his torso and his head.”
Police say both Walkers were involved in gangs. However, Chamilien explained to the Tribune that the story goes deeper. The older man, who rapped under the name “the Specialist,” had lost his mother at a young age and only got caught up in gangs to survive. “Given different circumstances and the right opportunities, he could have went far,” she said.
Of the younger Walker, she painted a picture of a boy who sought his father’s approval. “He just wanted his dad around, and he started hanging out with the wrong kids,” she lamented. “I knew my little cousin from the inside, not what the police have said about him. He was looking forward to high school; he was just trying to find his way.”
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.