CHICAGO — The mother of the man shot at close range during an armed robbery in Lincoln Park told WGN News Friday her son is improving, but it will be a long road to recovery.
Dakotah Earley, 23, a culinary student from Georgia, moved up to Chicago last November.
Earley was near Webster and Wayne Avenue when a man stepped out from behind a building, pointed a gun at him, and demanded his cell phone around 3 a.m. on May 6. A struggle ensued and Earley was robbed and then shot three times at close range in the back and head.
It was all caught in video footage his mother called “the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.”
“It was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen, and I think in the last couple of years we’ve seen a lot on video tapes and cell phones and things like that and this was the worst thing,” mother Joy Dobbs said.
Dobbs told WGN News she warned Earley to be careful when he moved here for culinary school due to his innocence and the violent crime rate.
“He’s just a big old kid at heart and doesn’t really see bad things and bad people,” Dobbs said.
Earley’s family has been documenting his improvements on GoFundMe. On Friday, they wrote that the 23-year-old was removed off life support and breathing on his own. It recently went over $100,000 for his recovery.
Earley was scheduled Friday for surgery on his jaw and a re-examination of his leg. While he is off life support, doctors told family his recovery will be a long haul.
No one is in custody for the shooting. Anyone with information can leave an anonymous tip at cpdtip.com.