Murdered Teen Told Mom Man Was Trying to Kill Him

Nineteen-year-old Nicholas Hawkins called his mother Saturday night and told her a man was trying to kill him, WVTM reports. The call was cut off, and Hawkins wasn't seen alive again, according to CorridorMessenger.com. On Tuesday night, his body was found at an illegal dumping site in the woods of Alabama, WBRC reports. According to WIAT, Hawkins had been shot, wrapped in a blanket, and left near an abandoned home. “I’m just numb right now," Hawkins' brother Jacob says. "My heart feels like it’s gone." After Hawkins' body was identified Wednesday, a candlelight vigil was held in his memory. "He was a really amazing kid and I hate that this happened to him,” Ginger Doss, Hawkins' coworker at McDonald's, tells WIAT. “I’m devastated.”

While police don't know who killed Hawkins, they do have a person of interest in custody. Joshua Reese, 21, was arrested this week on unrelated charges. The final time they spoke, Hawkins told his mother it was Reese who was trying to kill him. Reese was charged with attempted murder in 2013 for allegedly hitting a man with a gun and trying to shoot him. He's been out on bond while awaiting trial. Doss tells AL.com she knows Reese, who she says has a history of domestic violence and drugs. "He's not a good person," she says. Police are continuing to investigate what happened to Hawkins. "I hope we get swift, severe justice," Jacob tells WBRC. "From what I was told, it was a horrible, horrible death." (More murder stories.)