Shot to chest kills man

photo Seen Wednesday morning, the Okie Dokie food market at 1300 Roanoke Ave. was the scene of a shooting death Tuesday when a man was shot in the chest at close range shortly before 9 p.m. on the sidewalk in front of the store. Staff photo by John Rawlston/Chattanooga Times Free Press

Ulrica Duncan was walking into the Okie Dokie Mart at 1900 Roanoke Ave. when she heard a gunshot and a young man walking past her crumpled onto the sidewalk.

Duncan knelt and held the struck man.

"There was just blood everywhere. All I could say over and over was, 'Breathe, baby, breathe.' I just felt if I kept talking, he'd keep breathing," she said.

When paramedics arrived, Duncan took the man's pulse and felt nothing. Chattanooga police say he died from gunshot wounds to the chest, according to police spokeswoman Rebecca Royval.

Map

1900 Roanoke Ave.

1900 Roanoke Ave.

Police said the man was shot at close range shortly before 9 p.m. The man's name was not released Tuesday night, and no motive or suspect was listed in the report.

A small crowd of people gathered at the edge of the Harriet Tubman housing development.

Marcisha Geter said she grew up across from the slain man in East Chattanooga and couldn't believe someone would want him dead.

"He was just a really good guy. He wasn't a troublemaker. Loved kids. He was doing well for himself," Geter said.

The shooting was the third in Chattanooga on Tuesday.

Around 2:30 a.m. a man was shot while walking down Third Street by someone driving by.

A few hours later, Alberto DeLeon, 40, told police he was shot in the thigh by his roommate, Thomas Roell, 61, at a residence on Fifth Avenue, police say.

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