ATLANTA — Family and friends of a 19-year-old are preparing to say their final goodbyes this weekend after the young man was shot and killed in southeast Atlanta.
Atlanta Police said Calvin McDowell was found shot in the driveway of a home along Woodland Avenue SE just after midnight on April 13.
11Alive's Cody Alcorn spoke to McDowell's girlfriend, Shay Hardy, on Wednesday who said the couple just welcomed a baby boy to the world eight months ago.
'I know he was very happy about Royal," Hardy said.
Hardy couldn't talk about McDowell without smiling.
"Oh, Calvin, he was so outgoing, ambitious and humble," she said. "He always checked on the people he loved."
She said McDowell was an aspiring rapper and was known by his rap name "K5." Hardy said he loved music and was working toward creating a career out of it playing at local night clubs and different shows.
But, any dreams McDowell had were taken away from him last week. Hardy remembers that night vividly.
"I got the call that he'd been shot," Hardy sadly explained.
As she walked up to the yellow tape stretched across a yard on Woodland Avenue, Hardy knew something was very wrong.
"They kept pushing me back, they was like go, go go," she recalled.
Hardy said she stayed on scene all night and eventually was asked to identify her boyfriend's body.
"That was him. He didn't even get a chance to be a father for real, he was just taking off in his career. My son doesn't have a father," she said.
Atlanta Police haven't released a motive in the shooting or announced any arrests. Hardy said she believes McDowell was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She also had a message for her boyfriend's killer: "The investigation is active and my son will get some justice about his father there are aren't any if, ands or buts about it, for sure."
McDowell's visitation is set for April 21 and his funeral will be the next day, on Saturday. Hardy has set up an online fundraiserto help pay for McDowell's funeral and to help her in not only raising their son, Royal, but also her three other children the two were raising together.
Anyone with information on this homicide is asked to call Atlanta Police or Crime Stoppers Greater Atlanta at 404-577-TIPS(8477) or e-mail the anonymous information using the online form at www.crimestoppersatlanta.org.