The family of a 27-year-old Navy veteran is searching for answers after their loved one was found dead inside his car in the Bronx in what police said may have been a case of road rage.
The NYPD says around 2 a.m. Saturday, Keino Campbell was found in his car in Eastchester, shot three times in the chest. His gray sedan near Givan and Palmer avenues was left with a shattered window.
Campbell's family was in shock, as they said their relative was a peacemaker who had big dreams for the future. Now they are left trying to get to the bottom of what happened to him and why, as his mother clings to a Mother’s Day present from her late son: a framed award from his time in the U.S. Navy.
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WATCH HERE“So at least I have this I can look at the words he left for me," said Suzette Thomas.
His father was also left grappling with the loss.
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SIGN UP "This is my only son. I don’t have nobody left," said Conrick Campbell. "I wish I was there. I wish I was there to help him."
Campbell's family said he avoided trouble and was close to his family. He was supposed to start school for engineering in July, and his parents said he was on his way home from a car show at the time — when his mother got the call every mother fears.
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"Your son got shot and he’s in critical condition you need to get here...When I got there they had me sit in a room they didn’t want to tell me anything. I knew what it was," Thomas said.
"I know if something happened in this situation he was the first to apologize. He was the first to say ‘I’m sorry.’ That’s who he was," said his aunt, Vermaline Thomas. "To hear that someone took him for nothing. That’s unimaginable. It’s unthinkable and we can’t understand it."
On Monday, police announced that 20-year-old Michael Aracena of the Manhattan's Upper West Side had been arrested, charging him with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
The motive was not not immediately clear, but police believe the shooting death may have been a result of road rage. Attorney information for Aracena was not available.
His family said police are looking for a second suspect. But even word of an arrest brought little comfort to Campbell's mother, who recalled talking to her son earlier that evening.
“He said ‘Alright I’m gonna come and see you tomorrow.' That I can cook him some oxtail," the grieving mother said. "I can’t understand and all I can do is hold onto my faith and say God knows why.”
Now she just wants the world to know how proud of her son she was.
"I just want people to remember my son as a humble person who wanted to do the best for the world. That’s why he went to the Navy to help serve his country," said Thomas.
