Reginald Jones / Family photo
BY KIM JANSSEN
Chicago Sun-Times
A man fatally wounded on New Year’s Eve at a South Side tire shop was a gregarious, churchgoing devoted father of three, relatives said Thursday.
The violent death of Reginald Jones, they said, makes no sense.
Jones had been self-employed as a tow truck driver for around eight years and worked all the hours he could, even going out late to give a a stranded motorist a tow on Christmas Day, his sister Brandy Jones said.
“Every man has things he keeps to himself, but he never said anything about any problems he had with anybody,” his sister said, acknowledging that her brother’s job “could be dangerous.”
The shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. at the tire store in the Avalon Park neighborhood on the South Side, police said. A gunman approached Jones, 33, at the shop in the 8000 block of South Stony Island Avenue. Rodriguez Rims & Tires is listed at 8024 S. Stony Island Ave. The gunman shot him multiple times and ran away, police said.
Her brother “was always the life of the party” and liked to host cookouts for his large, close family and friends at Jesse Owens Park and the 31st Street Beach, Brandy Jones added.
“He was always talking with his mouth full — he talked so fast, like an auctioneer, that we all said he should do that for a living.”
“He was an encourager, always affectionate and unafraid to show emotion,” his mother Judy Jones said.
Jones grew up on the South Side and attended Bowen High School and Salem Baptist Church, his mother said. He adored his daughter Kirya, 14, and his sons Kylan, 7, and Kamaron, 6, she said.
Kylan and Kamaron would wear his cologne and “always smelled like their father,” relatives said.
They also shared his love of old cars and could identify every vehicle on the road, Brandy Jones said.
Jones was planning to spend New Year’s Eve with his family, but was instead rushed to Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center on the back of a flat bed truck after he was shot by a gunman in a ski mask, she added.
“It was faster than waiting for an ambulance, but he was dead before he got there,” she added. “One life taken has affected one thousand hearts.”
Jones, of the 8800 block of South Cornell, was pronounced dead at 2:55 p.m., authorities said.
His mother had no idea why he’d been killed. “I wish I knew,” she said.