Photo from DNAInfo.com/chicago
BY WILL HAGER
Homicide Watch Chicago
Ronald Sawyer didn’t have children of his own, but the Roseland man had a “heart of gold” toward the neighborhood youths and encouraged them to avoid street life, family said.
Sawyer, 30, was shot about 1:15 p.m. Jan. 3 in the 300 block of West 114th Street, authorities said. He died about three hours later at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and became the city’s first murder victim of 2014.
Delores Smith said her nephew loved watching soap operas and working on cars. He was looking for a job and planned to enroll at Chicago State University, she said.
“He will be remembered as one of the most kind-hearted, generous people on earth,” Smith said. “The funeral will speak for itself. I don’t think there will be room for everybody. There will be people coming from all over, and I think that speaks to the type of person he was.”
Sawyer was family-oriented and helped his sister with her college expenses by buying her books and giving her money, Smith said.
Officers found Sawyer, of the 11000 block of South Parnell Avenue, shot in the back, face, hand and buttocks. The shooter ran into an alley and fled in a waiting vehicle, police said.
Nobody has been charged with Sawyer’s murder.
“I won’t say it tore our family apart because I don’t want to give the person who did this any credit,” Smith said. “It only united us closer.”