Mamie Thomas , woke up around  , 5 a. m. Monday , expecting a word from her lifelong partner , Damien Nelson, who was going to pull her to the grocery business following his move as a security guard. When he was soon, she thought he may have stopped for coffee.
Around , 7 a. m.,  , Chicago , police officials rang their bell in , Auburn Gresham , to inquire if she knew Nelson.
Nelson, 44, had been shot and killed earlier Monday outside , BJ Wright Court Apartments , in , Little Italy, according to authorities and the security company that employed him.
Officials found Nelson lying outside in the 1400 stop of , South Morgan Street , about , 4: 10 a. m.  , He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities. According to police, the sniper was traveling in a black sedan.
She and Nelson’s two children are then trying to understand his sudden demise.
” It does n’t seem real, because he was such a workaholic”, said Thomas, 42. ” We are just in disbelief”.
Thomas and Nelson met at , Roberto Clemente High School , more than 20 years ago and had been along ever since, she said. Nelson was a doting parents to their child in special, Thomas said. He’d take her to galleries, cafes and to the lake for “quality time” and they’d been planning to go to the park Tuesday, she said. Later in the summer, Nelson had been looking forward to his first- always aircraft vacation, for a sister’s birthday in , Georgia.
He had hoped to one time possess his own safety business and transfer the business to his 11-year-old boy, according to Thomas.
” I want people that work like me, reliable ( people ) like me”, Thomas remembered him saying.
Besides his job as a security guard with , Benford Protection Group, Nelson also worked part time at a , 7- Eleven , store, she said:” He did n’t want to be sitting in the house. He was like,’ I ca n’t just sit. I’ve got to work.'”
In the past, Thomas has expressed concern for Nelson’s safety at work, saying that a man attempted to hit him in a vehicle outside the house challenging where he died. But she was still stunned.
” You always think it’s going to happen to you”, Thomas said. ” You always think they’re going to travel to your door, that it’s going to be your loved one”.
On Monday night, police said no one was in custody in connection with Nelson’s death and Benford Protection Group did n’t immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment. Cops were investigating.
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