Everyone in the 10th Place neighborhood in Southeast D.C. knew him as Tristan Sellers, or by his rap name, Slim Tristan. But to Andria Swanson, 30, the mother of Sellers’ 6-year-old son, King, he was just “T.”

“I’ve known him since I was 5 or 6—we grew up like family,” says Swanson, who had an off-and-on relationship with Sellers for a number of years. The rapper was fatally shot outside DMV Studios in Woodbridge, Virginia on Monday, leaving behind three children: Skylar, 2, Jamyrah, 12, and King, 6.

Sellers’ family is raising funds via a T-Shirt campaign to help support his three children and pay for the funeral services. They’ve currently raised more than $1,200, per Swanson.

Family and friends are holding a candlelight vigil for Sellers in Oxon Run Park at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White is expected to attend, as he and Sellers had a positive relationship, Swanson says.

Sellers was known as a family man who wanted to be a role model for the kids in his community. “One thing about Tristan is that he was very loyal, and he had a huge heart,” Swanson says. “We all know he wasn’t perfect. He had a temper, but he always wanted what was right.”

The 32-year-old rapper was outspoken against gun violence and had turned things around for himself after spending part of his youth embroiled in life on the streets, Swanson says. When he returned home in 2012 after serving a six-year sentence on drug charges, he was a changed man, she says. He had recently turned to the church, dabbled in Christian rap, and even performed at H.D. Woodson High School, where he gave an inspirational speech about the things he’d seen, the mistakes he’d made, and his music.

“He talked to [the students] about how he grew up in a life of crime and made some bad decisions that led him to jail, but how that wasn’t the route to take” Swanson says. “He really wanted to change the narrative on how kids think they should live and what they have to prove.”

And, of course, he was working on his music. After he was released from prison, Sellers immediately set to work on a series of mixtapes and singles, documenting the pain he had endured, Swanson says.

Ultimately, the gun violence Sellers sought to rid his community of claimed his life. On Wednesday, Police in Prince William County arrested and charged a D.C. man in connection with the murder outside the Virginia studio. The suspect, 43-year-old Cinquan Louis Blakney, is being held in Maryland, according to a press release. Blakney and Sellers were co-defendants on a 2006 drug case, according to court records.

The people Sellers loved have been deeply shocked and devastated by his sudden death, including Lisa Swanson-Canty, Swanson’s mother, who describes Sellers as her own son. “No words can describe this hurt—but we have to rise above the pain to lay him to rest with dignity, love, and honor,” says Swanson-Canty.

To give a “raw sense of who he was,” Swanson points to one of Sellers’ songs—a love letter to his family—which he wrote from the perspective of his life in prison:

“I know I ain’t perfect / But your love, I deserve it / Your heart, I won’t desert it / Forever serve my purpose / My love for you is true, I want you to understand / Until the end of time, I’ll be the greatest dad.”