Maurice P. Parker, 19, was a new father with a love of the oldies.
But the young man, who was shot and killed Saturday night, also had some recent run-ins with the law.
Parker served about five months in jail last year for two weapons charges.
Police said he was found outside of Kelley's Hilltop Lanes, 1313 N. 48th Ave. about 11 p.m. and taken to Creighton University Medical Center where he died.
Police have not said what the motive in his death might have been. No arrests have been made, as of this morning.
Parker is the second victim of a gun-related homicide in Omaha this year.
Police detained two men outside the bowling alley immediately after the shooting and canvassed the scene for evidence well into Sunday morning.
Torondo Arthur, 37, said he last saw his cousin Saturday afternoon. Parker was giving his young son — about five or six months old — a bath and singing a John Legend song.
Arthur said his cousin was a happy young man with a lot of friends.
"The only time I ever saw him gloomy was when the kitchen was a mess, like it is now," Arthur said. "He didn't like a messy house."
Arthur didn't know about his cousin's past trouble with the law, but said Parker's friends seemed like a respectable, clean-cut bunch.
"He'd get on me a little for not shaving sometimes," Arthur said.
But mostly, Arthur will remember his cousin as someone who liked having long conversations with family members and who wasn't afraid of singing a song.
"He'd sing along to prove he knew the lyrics," Arthur said. "Stuff like the Temptations and Sam Cooke, but he couldn't carry a tune."
Parker had three sisters.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Omaha Police Department's homicide unit at 444-5656 or Crime Stoppers at 444-STOP.
Staff writer Juan Perez Jr. contributed to this report.
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