Northwestern University doctoral student and recent cancer survivor, Shane Colombo, was one of six individuals killed on Sunday in Chicago after walking into the middle of a gunfight just four hours after getting in the city to start classes.
The other victims were between 18 and 41-years-old and two were women.
Shane ColomboColombo, 25, was shot by a stray bullet in the Rogers Park area around 8:25 p.m. while running an errand to purchase hangers for his closet, his mother told ABC News.
“I put him on a plane that morning at 10 a.m. [in California] and I kissed him goodbye, and that was the last time I saw him alive,” she said.
He was shot once in the abdomen and died after arriving to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, Illinois.
Police are still investigating possibe suspects of Colombo’s murder. No arrests have been made.
Colombo was getting ready to begin his doctoral studies in clinical psychology at Northwestern University with a full scholarship and had just moved in with his fiancée.
“He was so passionate about what he was doing,” said his mother, Tonya Colombo. “He was going to be a doctor. He wanted to do clinical research. He wanted to give people answers.”
Teresa K. Woodruff, dean of The Graduate School at Northwestern and Adrian Randolph, dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern said “our hearts and minds are with Shane’s loved ones during this difficult time.”
“Both of us live in or near Rogers Park, and it saddens us that this event occurred in the vibrant and caring community that we share with many of our fellow members of Northwestern,” Randolph and Woodruff said in their statement. “It also saddens us that the world will not one day be able to benefit from the research Shane was about to pursue.”
Monica Levitan can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow her on Twitter @monlevy_.
