Family members are mourning a father of six who was gunned down while stopped at a light on Roosevelt Boulevard over the weekend.
“I never thought that this would happen to me,” Renee C. Valentine said. “That’s why I’m so adamant about speaking out.”
Renee Valentine’s son Donte Valentine, 39, was driving a 2016 Chrysler 300 on Roosevelt Boulevard at Summerdale Avenue shortly before 6 a.m. Sunday. Police say he was stopped at a light when a gunman in a white Cadillac pulled up next to him and opened fire. Donte Valentine was shot multiple times in the head and chest. Police say he swerved his vehicle across the Boulevard and crashed into a fence at Friends Hospital on the northbound side at Adams Avenue. He was pronounced dead shortly after.
Police are still investigating the shooting and don’t have any suspects or a motive. Renee Valentine told NBC10 she may have one however. She believes an argument at a club where her son worked as a bouncer may have led to the deadly shooting.
“They targeted him to kill him,” she said. “They did.”
Donte Valentine is survived by six children between the ages of 2 and 17. His family is planning a vigil for him at the site of his murder Monday at 7 p.m.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
“I did not want my son to die like this and I’m sure any other mother would not want her son to die from gun violence,” Renee Valentine said. “He enjoyed life. He did. Donte wasn’t a violent person and for him to be taken away from us is senseless.”
If you have any information on the shooting, please call Philadelphia Police.
