Keino Campbell, 27, was found shot three times in the chest inside a vehicle at Givan and Palmer avenues around 2 a.m. Saturday.
Police sources told Eyewitness News the shooting was the result of road rage.
Campbell was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
On Monday, police announced 20-year-old Michael Aracena was arrested on charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
Campbell's family said he got into a fender bender and wanted to resolve the matter through insurance. They say the suspect demanded money and then shot the veteran.
Friends and loved ones say Campbell joined the Navy because he wanted to serve his country. They say he was always calm and someone you could reason with who was quick to say sorry.
So the fact he was shot three times in the chest doesn't make sense to them.
"He was supposed to come and see me the next day because I was like 'you're always with your friend if you're not home, what about me?' and he said 'ma you could come to me anytime,'" his mother Suzette Thomas said. "And he said that 'alright I'm going to see you tomorrow,' then I could cook him some oxtail."
Thomas said her son was a voice of reason. Now she is left searching for answers.
On Monday she clutched a gift he gave her for Mother's Day.
"My son gave me this when he went away to the Navy, to let me know that he misses me and loves me for Mother's Day," Thomas said. "And my last Mother's Day I just spent with him, I'll never have another one back. So at least I have this, I could look at this each time and read the words he left behind for me."
Family members and friends lit candles for Campbell on Monday night and remembered his calm and positive attitude and his work ethic an inspiration to loved ones.
"He's a gentle giant. He doesn't raise his voice. I never heard him speak loud," his parents Conrick Campbell and Suzette Thomas said.
His heartbroken parents are struggling to understand how a case of road rage after a fender bender would lead someone to shoot him three times.
They're relieved a suspect is under arrest but said gun violence over something so minor needs to stop.
"If you have insurance, you use insurance. Stop jumping out of car and shooting people, guys. Use your insurance. That's what it's for. If whatever reason your car got touched, use your insurance. And if you don't have insurance, don't drive. And don't use a little scratch on your car to demand money from people, that's why everyone has insurance," Conrick Campbell said.
Campbell was set to go back to school this fall to become a mechanical engineer.
His dream was to open his own business so he could take care of his family.
"Keino was respectable. He was decent. He was honest. He was kind. He was loving, generous, a comedian," his aunt Vermaline Thomas said. "To hear someone took him for nothing that's unimaginable. It's unthinkable. And we can't understand it."
Campbell's family believes there was a second man in the car with Aracena ans are urging that person to turn himself in.
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