By TIFFANY MITCHELL
Homicide Watch Chicago
Cedric Goodwin | photo provided
When Cedric Goodwin was fatally shot over a year ago in the South Shore neighborhood, he was walking to school with his younger brother.
“I believe he was trying to shield his younger brother from being shot,” said his mother, Tiffany Collins, who is still trying to cope with the loss of her son.
And to understand why.
“Cedric was not affiliated with any gangs," Collins said. “I don’t believe he was a part of any gang. If he was in a gang, I never knew anything about it.”
“He wasn’t a bad kid,” his mother said, though he did get into trouble once for possession of a firearm. “After that he was pretty much on the straight and narrow.”
Cedric Goodwin | photo provided
According to his mother, the boys were walking to school when two masked men came out of the alley and shot at the boys "as they were trying to run away.”
It happened about 9 a.m. in the 7400 block of South Euclid Avenue.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office said the 20-yar-old Goodwin was shot in the back, abdomen and left leg. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died about three hours later.
Cedric Goodwin was the middle of three boys, and enjoyed basketball and social media, his mother said. He was a senior at Winnie Mandela's Alternative High School, and a member of the high school basketball team.
“He was a huge sports fan, and he was very active in summer church camps,” Collins said. “He also enjoyed a variety of music, from old school rhythm and blues, to new school rap. He was outgoing and ambitious, and just a joy to be around.”
His goal was to become a computer technician after graduation.
It has been hard on his mother since that fateful night. She feels isolated and alone since the death of her son.
“When my son died, I lost faith in God because I was in disbelief when it happened,” Collins said. “My younger brother died when he was 17, so my mom has been the only person I can open up to.”
She feels especially bad because she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her son.
Cedric Goodwin (right) was the middle child among three, along with older brother Theodore (center) and Christopher (left). His mother believes Cedric was trying to protect Christopher when he was fatally shot. | photo provided
“I was at work when it happened, so by the time I got to the hospital he was already dead,” Collins said.
And she's furious because she feels the police are not doing enough to capture the killers.
“The police think that my younger son is not telling them everything about the day Cedric was killed,” Collins said. “I feel like they have just given up on trying to find the murderers of my son.”
But she said she "won’t rest" until the killers are behind bars. “I am willing to put a cash reward out to the media, so justice will finally be served.”