ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Family and friends of Terrance Hill, 36, gathered Friday evening to hold a vigil in his honor. The beloved father of six was shot and killed on Wednesday off 13th Avenue South in St. Petersburg.
"My son Terrance was a person who would care for and help anybody," his mother, Cathy McKinney, told 10 Tampa Bay. "Terrance told his momma he loved her every day. He loved his sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews."
On Friday evening, dozens gathered outside his mother's home to mourn his loss. His family said dozens more would arrive to pay their respects throughout the weekend.
His loved ones say Hill turned his life around in the last decade and helped countless others do the same.
A co-worker and friend from the Conch Republic Grill said it was Hill who pushed him to stick with the job.
"When I started working at my job, the longest I ever had a job, you know why I stayed there? Because of Terrance!" he said. "I was going to quit two weeks on the job, I would go get money on the streets, I know how to do that, I been doing that, but my brother said no brother, that's not the way brother!"
According to St. Petersburg police, just before midnight Thursday, murder suspect Douglas Lee Dawson turned himself into the Pinellas County Jail. He now faces charges of second-degree murder and is being held without bond.
Hill's family says the two knew each other from the neighborhood.
"They used to talk and stuff, so I don't know what went wrong that they couldn't keep talking it out, that he had to kill him," McKinney said.
McKinney said she doesn't want anyone else to feel her pain.
"I want to see it stopped. I want to see the killing stop," McKinney said. "We've got to take the neighborhoods back. We've got to take our kids and the neighborhoods back."
His family sees Hill's murder as part of a problem that's greater than gun violence.
His brother-in-law Kendale Sturdivent said, "It becomes a multi-layered complex set of issues. One of the biggest things is desperation. What was this person thinking before he shot someone so special? Desperation."
As they gather to remember the 36-year-old, they say his legacy is a life of putting others first.
McKinney said, "He was a helper. If your tire was flat, he would help you. If you were getting beat up over there, he'd come and pull them off you, he didn't have to know you, he would save you. He was a savior."
Dawson's next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 13.