"He wasn't a statistic to us."
[Ads /]
Rahman Newsome will be remembered for much more.
"He said OK mom, I'm going to do that. I'm going to be something, you watch. That's how I know, my son didn't deserve this," said Gloria Newsome.
Rahman was walking home last Friday when a drive-by shooter gunned him down in Central Fresno.
Shawn Riggins remembers hoping it was not one of his students.
"It was a shock, it was a dagger to the heart," said Riggins.
[Ads /]
Riggins oversees the Fresno EOC local conservation corps, where Rahman not only volunteered but was also completing high school. The 21-year-old was set to graduate in December.
"I did not want this city to just open up the Fresno Bee and say OK someone else was killed in the south part of Fresno. I want them to see we lost a future leader in the city," said Riggins.
Hours before his murder, Rahman submitted a college essay. Optimistic about his future, describing his desire to one day open his own business.
"He was on his way to success, and he was stopped, he was cut short, for no reason at all," said Newsome.
Long after the lights they hold go out -- friends say their memory of Rahman will never fade.