By TIFFANY MITCHELL
Homicide Watch Chicago
Marcus Wallace and his mother, Charlotte Wallace | photo provided
Marcus Wallace may not have have been an angel, but when he was fatally shot three years ago in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, it turned the world upside-down for those who knew him best--his mother and his young son.
“His friends say he was in a gang, but I never knew if it was true,” Charlotte Wallace said of her 23-year-old son. “I know he was no angel, but he was starting to change his life around by distancing himself from the bad crowd.”
His mother knew his other side.
“My son was a sweet and respectable young man who was working on improving himself,” she said.
Wallace has been severely depressed since her son's death.
Marcus Wallace | photo provided
“I went through a huge depression to the point of suicide,” she said. “I started doing Pageants of the Heart for motivational building in order to cope with the death of my son.”
According to his mother, Marcus was running across the street with one of his friends at the corner of Van Buren and Pulaski when he was shot about 7:10 a.m. Jan. 11, 2013. The friend ended up with a gunshot wound to the foot, but Smith got the worst of it.
“I kept asking the police what was going on and nobody would tell me anything,” she said.
According to Chicago Police and Cook County medical examiner’s office, he was shot multiple times and died about an hour later.
Marcus was an only child, who enjoyed creative writing, rapping and sports, according to his mother.
Marcus Wallace and his son, Macus Jr., now 7 | phto provided
He also leaves behind a 7-year-old son, Marcus Jr., his mother said.
“He was a great dad to my grandson,” she said. “We miss him so much.”
“Many people attended his funeral because he was an all-around good kid, Wallace said.
Marcus received his GED in 2009 and later applied to the Computer Systems Institute to study computer technology.
It’s been hard on his mother since that fatal night, but she is trying to cope through professional counseling and self-healing.
“My son’s death was killing me on the inside to the point where it started to consume me,” Wallace said. “I was literally a hermit, because I blamed myself for his death.”
She also is hurt by the knowledge that nobody will tell the police what happened that day.
Charlotte Wallace | photo provided
“People are afraid to tell the police who killed my son,” she said. “Every day it’s a struggle because I miss him so much and I wish he was still here.”
She said her son was her world, her everything.
“I use to tell him he saved my life because he made me a mature single mother at the age of 18,” Wallace said. “They just don’t know that when they killed my son, they took my everything.”