PALATKA, Fla. — Temetrius Greene says her 17-year-old son Dorrion McKinnon was her goofball, and always knew how to make the family laugh in hard times.

She says the last time she saw him on Christmas, McKinnon said he would open his presents when he got back. He then told her he loved her. Those were the last words she heard from her son.

“December is the worst month of my life now, and we can never do Christmas without God, we’re still going to do the God thing, but not the gifts thing because one of my gifts is gone, my son is not here anymore,” Green said.

She is devastated over the death of her son. She says she knew something was wrong when she got a frantic call from her oldest son in Palatka Christmas night. “He said, ‘Mom! Mom! Where you at?! Where you at?!’ I said, ‘Why baby?!’ He said “Dorrion dead right now!'”

Greene’s son was one of three shot at a Food Mart along North 19th Street in Palatka.

Police said they responded to a block party in a parking lot around 9:45 p.m. Christmas evening while doing crowd control, when multiple gun shots went off in the Palatka Daily News Parking lot next door.  

McKinnon and 23-year-old Tyree Gilyard were killed. Twenty-three-year-old Dezail Dennis survived the shooting and had surgery today. He is stable at this time.

McKinnon’s mother, speaking through her grief, said her son was taken too soon.

“I hugged him and I kissed him, and I played in his hair and I kissed him, and I played in my hair, and I kissed him and I told him God got you, God got you,” Greene said.

Greene said she moved McKinnon and his siblings away from Palatka to get away from danger on the streets. She says her son’s death is a dark reminder that action needs to be taken.

“We need everybody in this community to come together as one,” she said. “Stop pointing fingers, stop holding grudges on each other, put the gun violence down and come together as a better community like we used to be.”

Greene knows her son is watching and she wants him to know she will be okay.

“Go on and rest, God got you. You can rest now, I got it from here, I got it from here take your time, take your time and rest, God got you,” said Greene.

The shooting is still under investigation, and one person of interest has been taken in for a preliminary interview. Greene says she forgives who shot her son.