The man who was fatally shot on Kelly Drive was a father of two looking to escape Philly’s violence

Every morning, Kahalil Wilkes would check in with his mother to wish her good morning and let her know he was OK.

So when Saturday morning turned to afternoon and Althea Wilkes hadn’t heard from her 30-year-old son, she grew worried. She texted him, but her messages went unanswered, and her calls went straight to voice mail. And then she learned the awful truth.

Around 2:38 a.m. Saturday, her son was shot to death on Kelly Drive near Boathouse Row.

A police officer on patrol found Wilkes shot multiple times in the 2200 block of Kelly Drive in a parking lot between St. Joseph’s Gillin Boathouse and Temple University’s East Park Canoe House, police said. He was found in a Dodge and pronounced dead minutes later at the scene.

No arrests have been made, no weapon has been recovered, and police have not released a motive for the crime.

For Althea Wilkes, the shooting is shattering and leaves many questions unanswered, including who was with her son at the time.

Wilkes was a father of two children — a 12-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son. He worked hard at a construction job to support his children, his mother said, and was thinking of moving away from the city to make a better life for them.

On Friday, the day before he was found dead, Althea Wilkes said, her son told her he planned to move to Charlotte, N.C., away from Philadelphia and its gun violence, to make sure his children would be safe playing outside and would have a “good life.”

The move down South would have created a new place for Wilkes’ family to visit and to spend time with him and the children, Althea Wilkes said. He was a favorite uncle to his many nieces and nephews, the fun uncle who’d pick them up and play with them and and make them laugh or take them out to the store.

Every day, Wilkes would make a round of calls and texts to his mother, siblings and other relatives, asking them their plans for the day and telling them his, his mother said.

“He shared everything with me,” Althea Wilkes said. On Friday, he told her he was going to a club that night. And she never heard from him again.

The shooting of Wilkes was one of several violent incidents over the weekend, including a chaotic drive-by shooting that injured two people as hundreds gathered at Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park early Sunday.

And late Saturday afternoon, a 71-year-old man and his 5-year-old grandson were shot and seriously wounded on Passyunk Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia, authorities said.

At 5:49 p.m. Saturday, police responded to a report of a shooting at 6100 Passyunk Avenue, police said. When officers arrived they found a Nissan Maxima riddled with bullet holes at a gas station, police said. Officers found the man with a gunshot to his lower back, and the child with a graze wound to his shoulder, police said.

The boy was taken to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and listed in stable condition, police said. The grandfather was in critical condition at Presbyterian Medical Center, police said. Police determined the man and his grandson were shot while passengers in the Nissan Maxima that was traveling in Southwest Philadelphia.

On Tuesday, police said they had no additional details on the crime.

In the Belmont Plateau shooting, police said, between 200 and 300 people were at the popular spot on Belmont Mansion Drive when a dark-colored sedan drove up and opened fire into the crowd.

A 19-year-old woman was shot twice, in her right shoulder and back. A private car took her to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was listed in critical condition, police said. A 20-year-old man who was shot in his left leg was driven in a private car to Temple University Hospital, where he was in stable condition, police said.

As of Tuesday, no arrests had been made and police gave no motive for the shootings. Police continue to investigate.

So far this year in Philadelphia, 164 people have been killed by gun violence, and 688 others were shot, but survived, according to data from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.

Althea Wilkes, meanwhile, is planning a funeral for her son. Since his death, she said, she’s been fielding calls from people who loved her son. Despite her loss, she said, she could almost feel him by her side, hugging her and making her smile.

“He was a good person. He was always happy,” she said. “And right now, I tell everybody, every time I think about him I can feel a kiss from him.”