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'They took a good person and they took him from me,' David 'Yaya' McAtee's mother remembering her son

Ms.Odessa said seeing her youngest son gone was tough for a woman who already buried 4 other children.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — “Looking at him laying there bloody, blood all on his face, shirt bloody and everything. It was a horrible sight to see...And something no mother wants to. All I could say is I love you David I love you and I miss you” Odessa Riley, mother of David McAtee, said.

Odessa Riley exclusively told WHAS11's Wake Up anchor Kristin Pierce, that she got the call about her son David McAtee on June 1 around 1 a.m.

“He was crying, I said what’s wrong, he said David’s dead,” Odessa said.

David McAtee was shot and killed near Broadway and 26th Street. There was a shooting involving a large group, Louisville Metro Police and the National Guard. Odessa isn’t sure who shot her son or why-- but she wants answers.

“When a mother lose a child, a piece of you goes a long right with that child,” Odessa said.

RELATED: Community remembers Louisville business owner killed in LMPD, National Guard shooting

Credit: Odessa Riley
Family photo of David 'Yaya' McAtee

David who was also known as Yaya or the BBQ man loved to cook and share that food with others- people in the community and the police. Odessa says David made a plate for any officer that stopped by.

“They took a good person and they took him from me…” David’s mother said.

Ms.Odessa waited 12 hours to see her son. When she got the call about him, she went straight to the scene. She says his body wasn’t removed until about 1 that afternoon. Seeing her youngest son gone was tough for a woman who already buried 4 other children.

“I done lost 5 kids I had 9 kids in all, now I got 4,” Odessa said.

More on David McAtee

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