Mother: Son killed trying to protect children from man shooting off gun

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. — A man was trying to keep several children safe when he was gunned down in a College Park apartment complex, neighbors said.

"I'm hurting, because he's my only child," Marie Gallishaw told Channel 2's Aaron Diamant. "Gregory was what you call one of a kind."

Gallishaw said her son, Gregory Gallishaw, a father of four, confronted Kentavious Patterson at the complex several times on Sunday for firing a gun into the air.

"What he was doing was defending the neighborhood. ‘Young man, stop shooting your gun. There's kids out here playing, my kids are out here playing,’" Gallishaw said her son told Patterson.

Police said the two men argued before Patterson shot and killed Gregory Gallishaw.

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"Crime happens, and we're aware of that, but when it's a young man who's trying to do the right thing and trying to look out for not only his children, but children in the area, and somebody takes the occasion to take advantage of him and ultimately take his life, it's very disheartening," College Park police Maj. Lance Patterson told Diamant.

Within hours of the shooting, a witness' tip led police to Patterson, who is now charged with murder.

Marie Gallishaw said that even though she is grateful that someone stepped up to put police on his trail, it still doesn’t take away the pain of losing a son to a senseless shooting.

"People don't think about all the circumstances that they put the family in over senseless killing," she said. "That boy didn't kill him because he was doing something to him. He killed him because he was standing up for the kids who was out there playing where he was shooting a gun at."

Cox Media Group