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Mother Of Armed Robber Doesn't Blame Officer For Shooting Her Son

(CBS) -- Tonia Stevens lost her 16-year-old son Monday night, when he was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer. She said she wanted her son "to go the straight route," but he'd been in trouble with the law for years, so she doesn't blame the officer for shooting her child.

Deonta Dwight Mackey died after he held an off-duty Cook County Sheriff's sergeant at gunpoint while the officer was pumping gas at a Citgo on the South Side.

CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot spoke exclusively with his mother in this Original Report.

"To the correctional officer. I don't have no hate in my heart, for what he did," Stevens said.. "He was out doing a criminal act."

"I'm not one of those parents. I'm not. Everybody knows me. I'm not one of those parents. I promote fairness," she added.

Tonia Stevens says she doesn't blame the off duty Cook County Sheriff's Office sergeant who shot and killed her son, Deonta Dewight Mackey.

Surveillance video shows Mackey holding the sergeant up at gunpoint and demanding his wallet during an attempted car-jacking.

"I did the best I could for him. I wanted him to go the straight route. He was just determined to go and hang, with this crowd," said Stevens.

Stevens says her son had been in trouble with the law since the age of eleven for everything from assault to cannabis possession and robbery. She also says a 2010 battle with meningitis, a bacterial brain infection, nearly killed the 16-year-old and changed his behavior completely.

This past Thursday, he finished a month-long house arrest for an alleged robbery. Four days later, he was carrying out this crime, caught on tape.

Stevens says her son had many mentors in his life, including Carlos Estes. Estes was getting Mackey into an alternative school after the teen was expelled, allowing him to have a lot of time on the streets.

"Had a lot to do with peer pressure and wanting to be a part of and belonging to a group of individuals," said Estes.

"It's just sad that the peer pressure is winning the streets," said Stevens.

As for the two young men who were with her son and ran from the scene, Stevens says, if they don't want to follow the same path her son did, they need to turn their lives around, and turn themselves in.

Police are interviewing a person of interest in the armed robbery.

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