Despite living in Milwaukee for the past few years, Cortez Ray Bellamy considered Jefferson City his home and told friends he planned to move back here.
The 24-year-old never got the chance. Back to visit his former hometown over the weekend, he was gunned down early Saturday in the Old Munichburg neighborhood near where many of his friends and relatives live.
"It devastated me," said Mary Mayes, who knew Cortez and his family. She worked with his mother at Ryan's restaurant briefly several years ago. "It really brought me to tears last night. It's really hard for me to relate to kids killing kids."
She said Bellamy was "a kid at heart, goofy and funny. Just fun. I'm sure he was full of mischief, like most kids are, but I never had any problems with him."
Bellamy was shot around 3:50 a.m. Saturday morning, and taken by a private vehicle to Capital Region Medical Center. He was treated for a gunshot wound to the head, then flown to University Hospital in Columbia, where he died later in the day.
Jefferson City police haven't released much else about the homicide, and have yet to even publicly identify Bellamy as the victim.