"I feel empty inside," grieving mother struggles with details of teen's shooting death

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. - A South Fulton family is distraught after losing their 17-year-old son to gun violence.

Police say the high school teen and a man got into an argument at a park where they shot each other on Jan. 4.

"I'm feeling hurt," mom Twina Feliciano told FOX 5. "I feel empty inside. My heart has a hole in it. My stomach feels like it is just swirling."

Twina said her son Ocasio's death has felt like a gut punch that just won't go away.

The last time she heard from the teen was over the phone. He had just gotten off the school bus.

"'Mom is it ok if I'm outside with my friends it's 5 o'clock?' Then at 6:51 he texts me saying, 'I'll be home soon'," she shared the personal texts between herself and her son with FOX 5.

But he never arrived. South Fulton police say the Westlake junior and another man got into an argument in Sandtown Center park on Sandbay Drive.

Officers say both of them were shot, but Ocasio did not survive.

His mom says all this sounds out of character for her son.

"Ocasio is not a person who is hostile. He is a quiet. Everyone who knows him, you can ask anyone about him, he has a quiet demeanor," his mom said.

Twina ended up raising her two boys by herself after her husband was killed when Ocasio was only a year old.

He looked up to his big brother Jaylen who now serves in the Marines and was even on the honor roll at North Atlanta High. But for the last few months after transferring to a new school, she said Ocasio had started hanging with the wrong crowd. 

Police told FOX 5 that both parties had weapons, a detail that shocks Ocasio's mom.

"A gun? No ... That … No, never," she struggled. "I wouldn't ever say what my child wouldn't do when I'm not around, but he's a great kid. I don't know where he got a gun. It's about the pressures of the streets."

South Fulton police said no charges were filed in the case.