Emiliano Montero, 23, a Bucks County native who loved working on cars

Editor’s note: This obituary is presented in partnership with The Philadelphia Obituary Project, a nonprofit committed to memorializing city victims of homicide whose deaths have otherwise been overlooked.

Emiliano Charles Montero always wanted to know how things worked. He could take anything apart and put it back together, and he enjoyed tinkering on cars the most.

He pictured himself opening his own garage one day in the suburbs. After briefly living in Philadelphia when he was a baby, he and his two younger sisters were raised by his mother, Jessica Ortiz, in Bristol, Bucks County. “And I did whatever I could to not come back,” she said.

Earlier this year, she made plans to move with her son and daughters to Northeast Philadelphia, but they needed a living space until their new home was ready. On Feb. 9, they moved in temporarily with Ortiz’s friend at 23rd and Moore in Point Breeze. They planned to stay two weeks.

Just three nights later, Ortiz was at work when she got an alert from the Citizen app about a shooting on the block where they were staying. She sent it to her son, asking if he knew anything about it — not realizing the alert was about him.

Montero had been fatally shot outside his temporary home in an apparent robbery attempt. Police have made no arrests.

“We were only in the city for three days,” his mother said. “Everything I feared came true in such a short time.”

She added: “The choice that person made has not only destroyed my family but their own family, too, when they hopefully have to answer for what they did. That family will lose, too. It makes no sense.”

Montero was born to Ortiz and his father, Jason Montero, on April 18, 1997. His mother was 19 when she had her son, and they grew up together.

“Everything you do is for this little person, and they come first,” she said. “It’s something I was very happy about.”

Montero attended schools in the Bensalem Township School District, and science was his favorite subject. He was in the gifted program at Snyder-Girotti Elementary School, and in his spare time, he’d prefer to watch the Discovery Channel over cartoons.

He embraced his role as a big brother and he was protective of his sisters. Their mother described an incident when Emiliano was 12 and his sister Nina was 4. He was helping her ride a skateboard when she fell and knocked a tooth out. He took control, cleaned her up and remained calm.

“Emiliano was a great person,” Nina said. “As I’m his little sister, he would always tell me to not worry about anything and don’t stress about adult things and to just have fun being a teenager. He definitely is not gonna be forgotten.”

Montero wanted to further his education, but he was hesitant to take on student loan debt, so he taught himself all he could about cars. He was young, and he was still in the process of figuring out what he wanted his future to look like.

But instead of supporting him in achieving his goals, as she thought, his mother is determined to make sure his killer is found and her son isn’t forgotten.

“He was the sweetest, most caring individual,” Ortiz said, adding that he would have been a great father if he had the opportunity.

“He would do anything for anyone,” she said. “He was the smartest young person I’ve ever encountered — he knew about everything. I thought he’d be able to make the world a better place.”

A reward of up to $20,000 is available for anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for Montero’s murder. Anonymous calls can be submitted by calling the Citizens Crime Commission at 215-546-TIPS.