Crime & Safety
'My Heart Is Broken': Mount Prospect Mom Mourns Loss Of Son Shot Dead
A GoFundMe has been set up to help pay for expenses tied to last week's tragic shooting in Palatine.
MOUNT PROSPECT, IL — Brisa Montes says "prayers are much-needed" following the death of her 15-year-old son, Damian Hernandez, earlier this week. The Mount Prospect mother and her family are mourning the loss of Hernandez, who succumbed to injuries sustained from gunshot wounds Tuesday night at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
On Aug. 17, Palatine police said they found Hernandez lying down with wounds to his upper body in the 1200 block of Long Valley Drive in unincorporated Palatine. Montes said after the incident, her son was hospitalized with damage to his spine, and was paralyzed from the neck down, "fighting for his life" on machines. Hernandez was pronounced dead at 11:14 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
"My heart is broken, as my family is as well, to have lost Damian and such a tragic way and useless way to gun violence," Montes said in a GoFundMe post.
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Montes is hoping to raise $35,000 through the GoFundMe campaign to help cover funeral expenses, hospital bills, food and shelter, and any additional expenses that may arise.
"My family and I need your help as I have taking time away from work to be by his bedside, while my three other boys were at home without me," the single mother says in the post.
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As of Thursday morning, more than $4,000 has been raised.
Meanwhile, an arrest warrant was issued Wednesday for a resident of unincorporated Palatine following Hernandez's death. Jesus Pantoja, 18, of the 1500 block of Silver Lane, is considered "armed and dangerous" and is wanted in connection with the slaying, according to police.
On Tuesday, a 14-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in connection with the shooting in the 1700 block of E. Clear Creek Bay. He is being held in custody at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center in Chicago.
To learn more about the GoFundMe campaign and to donate money, visit the page here.
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